Speed governors: SC warns Nagaland Transport Secretary

Dimapur, Jan. 16: The Supreme Court of India on Monday directed the Transport Secretary of Nagaland to respond to a plea seeking installation of speed governors in vehicles. Failure to respond, according to an IANS respond, would require the officer to appear before the apex court.

An NGO, Suraksha Foundation, has challenged the April 15, 2015 government notification exempting some categories of passenger and transport vehicles from mandatorily installing speed governors. Nagaland is not the only state to have earned the ire of the Supreme Court.

The list includes: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Tripura, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The Supreme Court has asked Transport Secretaries of all these states, including Nagaland, to file their response.
According to the IANS report: “Apparently displeased over 10 state governments not filing their response to the plea for the installation of speed governors, the bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud observed: ‘Is this Supreme Court or a joke court? This is not a panchayat and can’t be taken lightly.’”

Having vented its ire over non-compliance of its order by the 10 states, the court adjourned the matter for four weeks, it reported.

The top court had on November 20, 2015 sought response from the central government and all the state governments, including union territories, on a PIL by the NGO, seeking the installation of speed governors in transport vehicles across the country.

The top court had also questioned the rationale for an exemption to these passenger and commercial vehicles from installing speed governors, which is a mandatory requirement under the Central Motor Vehicles (Sixth Amendment) Rules.

According to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, the transport vehicles will be fitted with speed governors (speed controlling device) in such manner that those can be sealed with official seal in a way that the seal cannot be removed or tampered with without being broken.

It also says that the speed governor of every transport vehicle shall be so set that the vehicle cannot be driven at a speed in excess of the maximum pre-set speed of the vehicle.

Challenging the notification exempting the vehicles, the petitioner NGO has said that these exempted vehicles were responsible for a large number of road accidents.