By Express News Service
CHENNAI: Don’t forget to carry your original driving licence while you are behind the wheel starting September 1.
Made mandatory a few days ago, the city police on Tuesday re-emphasised the need to carry it without fail, warning action would be taken against violators.
The rule introduced to reduce road accidents has already led to a howl of protests, with a few approaching the Madras High Court.
When the matter came up before the first bench on Tuesday, Chief Justice Indira Banerjee asked, “What is the difficulty in carrying the original driving licence?” She posed this question when activist ‘Traffic’ K R Ramaswamy made a mention to this effect, this time before the first bench, the other judge being Justice M Sundar.
In the absence of the CJ, he had, on Monday made the same mention before another bench headed by Justice M Sathyanarayanan, which directed him to file the petition, to be taken up in normal course.
Meanwhile, K Aswin, State co-ordinator of Justice for Denials Association, filed a PIL for a direction to the Transport department not to insist on carrying original licence while driving.
According to the petitioner, the Transport Minister on August 22 had announced, in the presence of department officials, that all motor vehicle drivers should carry original licence with them from September 1. Otherwise, they will be fined.
The petitioner pointed out that even in the Motor Vehicles Act, there is no stipulation in this regard. The reason given by the minister that the same would reduce accidents, is absurd and unacceptable. In case of any accident or violation of traffic rules, the police can seize the vehicle and obtain all particulars on the spot and ask the offender to appear before the court concerned, where he will be either fined or put on trial.
Hence, there is no necessity to carry the original licence. In case of loss of the licence, the procedure for a new one, is very tedious and time consuming.
