Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday rapped the state for having an officer from Solapur conduct fitness certification of vehicles in Pune, and directed the state to cancel 74 such certifications. After the state informed the court that the officer had been suspended, the court chided it for seeking additional time to complete 27 fitness tracks across the state.
On its part, the state assured the court that four such tracks were nearly complete however it needed time to complete the rest. The court asked for a completion report of the four tracks after which it would consider giving an extension.
A division bench of justices A.S. Oka and A.K. Menon was hearing a bunch of public interest litigations (PILs) filed by activist Shrikant Karve, who prayed for directions against the road transport authority for carrying out fitness tests of heavy vehicles in a spurious manner. The petition also complained of the state not setting up fitness tracks in different districts.
Complying with an earlier order of the bench, the state and RTA submitted reports and affidavits regarding progress in connection with allegations levelled by the petitioner. In its report, the RTO, Pune, admitted that Deepak Mane, an officer from the RTO office in Solapur used to come to Pune and do fitness certification of vehicles on holidays. The certification was conducted in a huge warehouse. The RTO further informed the court
that the said officer had been suspended and an enquiry was underway against the deputy RTO who had requisitioned Mane to come to Pune to do certification.
The court also asked the state to cancel fitness certification of 74 vehicles and recertify them and ensure that the vehicles did not ply on roads till they were certified.
Fitness tracks
It is mandatory for the state to have fitness certification tracks across all districts measuring 300m to test whether brakes and other functions work properly in case of emergencies. However, after the state said that 250m was sufficient to do the tests, the court allowed the same.
