: Taking note of the road rage unleashed by the red city service buses, the High Court of Kerala has asked Ernakulam Zone IG of Police to submit a report on various issues that “arise out of the red rage problem faced in Kochi” within three weeks.
In his order, Justice Alexander Thomas also appointed Kaleeswaram Raj as Amicus Curiae to assist the court in the issue.
Police have been asked to provide details of number and crimes involving red buses that have been registered in the last one or two years and the follow-up action thereon and the stage of prosecution of various cases. The “Inspector General of Police would also endeavour to appoint a special team of officials in the manner that he deems fit and necessary so as to deal with the actual situation in the circumstances in the next one week or ten days so that necessary inputs could also be obtained from the Inspector before he could report before the court,” the order said.
The court suggested that the IGP would also consult the “State Police Chief and take an overall comprehensive view of the matter and make appropriate suggestions for toning up and increasing the functional efficacy of the regulatory authorities including police authorities who have to deal with the situation at hand on real life basis so that ultimately there are some remedial improvement in the problem,” the court said. Terming the problem as “red rage, nomenclature after the red colour of this city service bus,” the court said that it “may have an initial assessment of the focus of the matter and consider and decide whether to place such aspects and matters for the in-depth consideration of the Chief Justice to enable him to decide whether suo motu PIL by the Division Bench presided over by the Chief Justice” was required.
