Chhattisgarh HC Initiates Suo Moto PIL Over Non-Functioning Of Automated Vehicle Fitness Testing Centre At Bilaspur

A bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Bibhu Datta Guru took note of the news reports which stated that the facility had been non-operational for over a week due to a technical fault in a machine, severely disrupting the mandatory fitness checks for thousands of vehicles.

“The aforesaid situation is causing great trouble to the public at large as the responsible officers of the concerned department are not taking any interest in either repairing the fitness testing machine or providing any alternate arrangement to the people,” the Court observed.

The Court noted that the fitness testing machines could not even test the ambulances.

The PIL is titled “In The Matter Of Suo Moto Public Interest Litigation Title As Machines Are Impaired, Fitness Testing Of Vehicles Stalls.”

In its order passed last week, the Court noted that the machine could not be repaired because the engineer had to come from outside, and no person responsible was available to inform us when the fitness testing machine would start functioning.

The Court also noted that the fitness testing centre's capacity is stated to be 72 heavy motor vehicles and 72 light motor vehicles per day, and one private company was granted a contract in November 2023 for the said work.

However, neither the Regional Transport Officer nor the company is interested in repairing the fitness testing machine. The Court also noted that the company does not have any alternative arrangement.

Before the court, the Advocate General submitted that steps had been taken to make the machines functional, and a new machine had also been made available to test the fitness of vehicles such as ambulances, etc.

Given this, the Court directed respondent No. 2, i.e., the secretary of the Transport Department in the state of Chhattisgarh, to file his personal affidavit concerning the steps taken in light of the news reports.

The Court has further asked the Secretary to inform the Court if any such situation exists in other districts of the State and what steps have been taken in that regard.