Driving licence: TN govt files counter affidavit in Madras HC

A counter affidavit was today filed in the Madras High Court by the Tamil Nadu transport department in connection with the petitions challenging the insistence on carrying original licence while riding or driving vehicles.
It stated that the original licence has become indispensable based on the recommendations of the Road Safety Committee constituted by the Supreme Court in 2014 to monitor the road safety laws in the country.
The insistence on original driving licence is the fall out of the stringent directions issued by the Committee, said the counter affidavit filed by the Transport Commissioner Dayanand Kataria IAS before the first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar.

The committee after going through the reports, filed before it relating to accidents, stated that road accidents were very high in Tamil Nadu compared to other states in August 2015, and also recommended suspension of the licences for the offences listed by it, it added.
The matter relates to the announcement by State Transport Minister M R Vijayabhaskar recently that all vehicle drivers should carry their original driving licences with them from September 1 onwards, failing which they would be fined.
The counter also pointed out that the committee had been time and again issuing several directions, with the last one onApril 24this year, expressing deep concern over the rise in the number of accidents and deaths.

From January to July this year, the police had booked 58, 32,120 offences including 1, 79,230 cases of drunken driving.

However, the cases could not be referred to the RTOs concerned for suspension or cancellation of licences in the absence of non-availability of the same at the time of booking the offences, the counter said.
Section 130(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act makes it mandatory to produce the driving licence if demanded by a police officer, it added.
The word 'original' is not in the Rules as there is no need to mention it.
The licence to be produced by a driver is the document issued by the Transport Department as defined in Section 3, it noted.

In other Acts also, whenever a document is mentioned, it means the original only, unless the law specifically mentions copy thereof, the counter clarified.
The bench adjourned the matter tillSeptember 15.
On September 1, the high court had directed the Tamil Nadu government not to implement till September 5 its notification making it mandatory for drivers of all vehicles to carry original driving licence.