HC: Implement order relating to collection of excess fee by auto rickshaws
Chennai: Expanding the applicability of the directions issued by the Madurai bench on April 22, 2015 relating to overloading of passengers and collection of excess fares by auto rickshaws and share autos, to all the districts in the state, the Madras high court has directed the authorities to implement the orders of the court, in letter and spirit.
A division bench comprising Justices S.Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad gave the directive on a petition filed by M.Chellappan, which sought a direction to the authorities to ensure that there is no overloading of passengers in transport vehicles over and above prescribed limits.
According to petitioner, the mini buses, mofussil buses and share autos carry passengers over and above the prescribed limits, posing a grave and imminent threat not only to the passengers but also to other vehicles on the road. However, no effective action has been taken to curb the menace of over loading and the perfunctory actions taken are not commensurate with the problem, he added.
The Transport Commissioner has filed a status report stating that stringent action has been taken against the permit holders of stage carriages, autos and other passenger category vehicles which carry overloading of persons in their vehicles.
The bench said the material on record discloses that Mofussil Buses can carry 55+2 passengers, mini bus 25+2 and share auto 4 +1 passengers. Earlier when one Alagirisamy filed a petition in 2015 for a direction to the authorities to constitute Special Teams for the effective implementation of G.O dated October 16, 2014 and the consequential order passed by the Madurai district collector relating to monitoring the functioning of meters, collection of excess auto fare from the passengers, more than revised auto fare fixed by the authorities, and carrying more number of passengers, the Madurai bench of this court, after taking note of the cases registered and compounded, by its order dated April 22, 2015 had issued several directions.
The directions were 1) the G.O dated October 16, 2014, issued in respect of three wheeler auto rickshaws, permitted to carry three passenger alone, cannot be made applicable to three wheeler five seater auto rickshaws, since both were different categories, 2) in respect of three wheeler auto rickshaws, they shall not be permitted to carry more than 4 persons including driver (3+1), 3) they should not be permitted to have any additional fixtures, making it convenient, to carry more passengers than permitted. The additional fixtures made, if any, should be directed to be removed, 4) the Madurai district collector and Commissioner of Police, Madurai were directed to issue suitable instructions, to intensify action, by the respective departments, to avoid any complaints from the public, 5) Wherever recalibration of electronic meters was not done within the time, suitable action should be taken, 6) wherever it was found that compounding fee and payment of fine, was made for violation of permit conditions, then the collector was directed to issue instructions to all the transport authorities to take action, in those cases, for suspension or cancellation of permit as the case may be, subject to the instructions already issued, 7) the District Collector and Commissioner of Police, Madurai were directed to issue suitable instructions to the authorities to take appropriate action against share autos, if they carry more than five persons, 8) temporary or permanent fixtures in the five seater share autos should not be allowed. 9) the District collector was directed to ensure submission of periodical reports, once in a month to him, by the Regional Transport Officers in Madurai City and 10) the Commissioners of Police, Madurai and Rural were also directed to ensure, submission of periodical reports, by the respective jurisdictional officers. "Directions issued by the Madurai bench dated April 22, 2015 should be made applicable to all the districts in the state. In the light of the above, instant petition is disposed of on the same lines. Respondents (authorities) are directed to implement the orders of this court, in letter and spirit", the bench added and posted the matter to August 13, 2019 for reporting compliance.
