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2024 Supreme(SC) 1252

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
ABHAY S. OKA, AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH, JJ.
S.Rajaseekaran – Appellant
Versus
Union Of India And Ors. - Respondents
Writ Petition(S)(Civil) No(S). 295/2012
Decided on : 02-09-2024

Advocates:
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant : Mr. Gaurav Agrawal, Sr.Adv. (Amicus Curiae), Mr. Ravi Raghunath, AOR, Mr. Manan Daga, Adv., Mr. Krishna Kumar, AOR, Mr. Vinodh Kanna B, Adv.
For the Respondent: Mr. Vikramjit Banerjee, A.S.G., Mr. Akshat Kaushik, Adv. Ms. Akansha Chahal, Adv. Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR Mrs. Nidhi Khanna, Adv. Mr. Sharath Nambiar, Adv. Mr. Debojit Borkakati, Adv. Mr. T S Sabarirsh, Adv. Mr. Kishan Chand Jain, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Adv. Mr. Ashwini Kumar, Adv. Mr. E.C. Agrawala, AOR Mr. Viresh B. Saharya, AOR Ms. Prerna Mehta, AOR Mr. Azmat Hayat Amanullah, AOR Ms. Rebecca Mishra, Adv. Mr. Anando Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Neeraj Shekhar, AOR Mr. Vivek Kishore, AOR Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR Ms. Sunita Sharma, Adv. Mr. Ishaan Sharma, Adv. Mr. Annirudh Sharma II, Adv. Mr. Jagdish Chandra Solanki, Adv. Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR Ms. Limayinla Jamir, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv. Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv. Ms. Rashmi Nandakumar, AOR Ms. Yashmita Pandey, Adv. Mr. Aravindh S., AOR Mr. Akshay Gupta, Adv. Mr. Abbas B, Adv. Mr. D.K. Devesh, AOR M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co, AOR Ms. Jaikriti S. Jadeja, AOR Mr. Raghvendra Kumar, AOR Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, AOR Mr. Prashant Bhagwati, Adv. Ms. Ruchira Gupta, Adv. Mr. Shishir Deshpande, AOR Ms. Pooja Tripathi, Adv. Ms. Harshita Sharma, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Verma, Adv. Mr. Shantanu Sagar, AOR Mr. Prabhat Ranjan Raj, Adv. Mr. Anil Kumar, Adv. Mr. Gunjesh Ranjan, Adv. Mrs. Divya Mishra, Adv. Mr. Manoneet Dwivedi, Adv. Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv. Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv. Mr. R. Rajaselvan, Adv. Mr. Amit Anand Tiwari, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Sabarish Subramanian, AOR Ms. Devyani Gupta, Adv. Mr. Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Adv. Ms. Tanvi Anand, Adv. Ms. Saushria Havelia, Adv. Mr. Danish Saifi, Adv. Mr. Sarathraj B, Adv. Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, AOR Ms. Devyani Bhatt, Adv. Ms. Sneha Menon, Adv. Mr. V. Shaitil J., Adv. Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Mahi Pal Singh, Adv. Ms. Tanishka Grover, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Chawla, Adv. Mr. Akhileshwar Jha, Adv. Mr. V. Shyamohan, AOR Mr. Sanjay Jain, AOR Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Adv. Mr. Keshav Singh, Adv. Mr. Satyajeet Kumar, AOR Mr. Himanshu Chakravarty, Adv. Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR Ms. Muskan Surana, Adv. Mr. Vikramjit Banerjee, A.S.G. Mr. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Adv. Mr. Neeraj Kumar Sharma, Adv. Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv. Ms. Mrinal Elker Mazumdar, Adv. Mr. Neeraj Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Vineet Singh, Adv. Mr. Harish Pandey, Adv. Mr. Shashwat Parihar, Adv. Mr. Kanu Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv. Mr. Bhuvan Kapur, Adv. Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Adv. Mr. Piyush Beriwal, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Singh Chauhan, Adv. Mr. Apoorv Kurup, Adv. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Mr. Santosh Kumar-I, AOR Mr. Pradeep Misra, AOR Mr. Daleep Dhyani, Adv. Mr. Manoj Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR Mr. Rahul Kumar, Adv. Mr. Ayushi Bansal, Adv. Mr. Aakash Thakur, Adv. Mr. Sarthak Dora, Adv. Mr. Sunny Choudhary, AOR Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, AOR, Adv. Mr. Sarthak Raizada Ga, Adv. Ms. Rashmi Singhania, Adv. Mr. Nitin Lonkar, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv. Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv. Mr. Aditya Krishna, Adv. Ms. Preet S. Phanse, Adv. Mr. Adarsh Dubey, Adv. Ms. Ruchira Gupta, Standing Counsel, Adv. Ms. Tulika Mukherjee, AOR Mr. V. Aravind, Adv. Mr. Beenu Sharma, Adv. Mr. Venkat Narayan, Adv. Mr. V.N. Raghupathy, AOR Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, AOR Mr. Subhasish Mohanty, AOR Mr. M.P. Vinod, AOR Ms. Nupur Kumar, AOR Ms. Niharika Tanwar, Adv. Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, Adv. Mr. T.K. Nayak, Adv. Mr. Samar Vijay Singh, Adv. Ms. Sabarni Sen, Adv. Mr. Fateh Singh, Adv. Mr. Divyanshu Kumar Srivastava, AOR

The court mandated immediate implementation of electronic monitoring for road safety under the Motor Vehicles Act, emphasizing compliance with traffic laws.

Headnote:(A) Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 - Section 136A - Electronic monitoring and enforcement of road safety - The provision mandates State Governments to ensure electronic monitoring on highways and urban areas, enhancing road discipline and compliance with traffic laws. The court emphasized the necessity of immediate implementation to avoid delays and ensure safety. (Paras 2, 3, 6)

(B) Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 - Rule 167A - Electronic enforcement devices must be approved and used for issuing challans for various traffic violations, ensuring proper documentation and compliance with legal standards. (Paras 4, 6)

ORDER :

1. We have heard Shri Gaurav Agrawal, learned Senior Advocate appointed as Amicus Curiae, Shri Vikramjit Banerjee, learned ASG and Shri Kishan Chand Jain, learned counsel.

2. The issue is of implementation of Section 136A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short, “the 1988 Act”) which was brought on the statute book with effect from 1st April, 2021. Section 136A of the 1988 Act reads thus:

(2) The Central Government shall make rules for the electronic monitoring and enforcement of road safety including speed cameras, closed-circuit television cameras, speed guns, body wearable cameras and such other technology.

Explanation.—For the purpose of this section the expression “body wearable camera” means a mobile audio and video capture device worn on the body or uniform of a person authorised by the State Government.”

3. According to us, Section 136A of the 1988 Act is a very innovative provision which will help all the State Governments in ensuring that road discipline is maintained and the provisions of the 1988 Act and the Rules framed thereunder are scrupulously followed. If Section 136A is implemented, the State machinery will easily get the data and information of the vehicles and individuals which are offending the provisions of the 1988 Act and the Rules framed thereunder, so that those who are violating the provisions can be prosecuted. Today, violators can be hauled up only if the violations are noticed by the Police. Road discipline and implementation of 1988 Act and the Rules framed thereunder have direct nexus with the road safety.

4. Now, Rule 167A has been incorporated in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 (for short, “the 1989 Rules”) by virtue of Central Motor Vehicles (Seventeenth Amendment) Rules, 2021. Rule 167A reads thus:

Explanation.—(1) For the purpose of this rule, “electronic enforcement device” means a speed camera, closed-circuit television camera, speed gun, body wearable camera, dashboard camera, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), weigh in machine (WIM) and any such other technology specified by the State Government.

(2) Body wearable camera may be worn by police officer, transport official or any other official authorised by the State Government and such officer or official shall notify to the offender that he is being recorded by the body camera and similarly, dashboard camera may be placed on the dashboard of any police vehicle or in any other vehicle as authorised by the State Government for enforcing the traffic rules and such officer or official shall notify to the offender that he is being recorded by the dashboard camera.

(2) State Governments shall ensure that appropriate electronic enforcement devices are placed at high- risk and high-density corridors on National Highways and State Highways, and at critical junctions at least in major cities with more than one million population (as per data available based on Million Plus Urban Agglomerations or Cities: census of India 2011 or as per the latest census) including the 132 cities as specified in the table below, and the electronic enforcement device shall be placed in such a manner so as not to cause any obstruction, line - of-sight issues or interruption in traffic flow—

TABLE

List of 132 Non-attainment/ Million plus cities in Indi

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2024 Supreme(SC) 1252

SUPREME COURT OF INDIAABHAY S. OKA, AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH, JJ.S.Rajaseekaran – AppellantVersusUnion Of India And Ors. - RespondentsWrit Petition(S)(Civil) No(S). 295/2012 Decided on : 02-09-2024

The court mandated immediate implementation of electronic monitoring for road safety under the Motor Vehicles Act, emphasizing compliance with traffic laws.

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SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
ABHAY S. OKA, AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH, JJ.
S.Rajaseekaran – Appellant
Versus
Union Of India And Ors. - Respondents
Writ Petition(S)(Civil) No(S). 295/2012
Decided on : 02-09-2024