Tamil Nadu Driving School Owners Federation (TNDSOF) has moved a writ appeal before the Madras High Court against the withdrawal of an interim order which permitted its members to use motorcycles and light motor vehicles (LMVs) that were more than eight years old and heavy vehicles that were more than 10 years old.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy on Wednesday directed State Government Pleader P. Muthukumar to take instructions from the Transport Commissioner within two weeks and decided to take up the appeal for a full fledged hearing on March 22.
The federation had initially filed a writ petition before a single judge of the court last year challenging a November 11, 2011 State government circular through which it was insisted that driving schools should not use motorcycles and LMVs that were more than eight years old and heavy vehicles that were more than 10 years old.
Insisting that all vehicles used by driving schools for imparting training to the candidates must be in a mechanically fit condition, the circular stated that the stipulation with regard to the age of motorcycles and LMVs must be complied before March 31, 2012 and that of heavy vehicles must be complied before September 30, 2012.
When the writ petition was listed before Justice R. Suresh Kumar in December last, the federation complained that the vehicles purchased by their members in 2012 had completed eight and 10 years now and therefore the transport authorities were insisting upon replacing them with new vehicles.
Taking note of the fact that the driving school owners were unable to use their vehicles for about two years between 2020 and 2021 when there was continuous lockdown to fight COVID-19, the judge granted an interim injunction restraining the officials from insisting upon replacing the vehicles.
However, when the case was heard subsequently by Justice S.M. Subramaniam on January 27 this year, he vacated the injunction on the ground that the validity of a similar circular issued by the State government in 2007 had already been upheld by a Division Bench of the High Court in 2010.
While upholding the circular, the Division Bench had highlighted the need for driving schools to use new motor vehicles alone for teaching purposes since the technology employed in cars had been constantly changing from steering mounted gear levers to floor mounted levers and automatic cars.
Further, Justice Subramaniam had pointed out that the federation had taken 10 years to challenge a 2011 circular. Questioning his decision, the federation, in its appeal, contended that the judge had almost decided the writ petition itself on merits while vacating the interim injunction.
Explaining the delay in challenging the circular, the federation said, the necessity had arisen only now after the officials began insisting upon replacing the old vehicles with new ones by relying upon the 2011 circular.
