Bombay HC: Strengthen online vehicle-certification systems

Mumbai: The Bombay high court directed the state to beef up its online certification of vehicles system in light of allegations by petitioners that fitness certification of vehicles was being done by officials of one district sitting in another district.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a Pune resident complaining of RTO not complying with conditions for verifying fitness of vehicles.

A division bench of Justice A.S. Oka and Justice A.K. Menon was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Pune resident Shrikant Karve complaining of lacunae and wrong doings by the Road Transport Office (RTO) while carrying out vehicle fitness (brake-test) certification.

On Thursday, when thestate submitted its report of the four tracks, senior counsel Uday Warunjikar appearing on behalf of Karve said that the fourth track at Osmanabad was incomplete.

 Apart from that he also pointed out that the software used by the department for online certification was carried out by officials in one district for vehicles in another district putting a question on the validity of the certified vehicles.

 “It is surprising that such a thing (certification of vehicles by officers sitting in one district for vehicles in another district) is allowed to happen. There should be a more robust system to monitor the online process,” directed the bench.

Thus saying the court directed the state to comply with the same and kept the matter for hearing on the state’s extension plea on Friday.