Public Buses Plying Without Valid Registration, Fitness Certificate: Calcutta High Court Seeks State's Response

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday sought response from the State government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition alleging that State-owned public transport buses are being allowed to ply without proper documentation such as certificate of registration, certificate of fitness, insurance policy and others.

The PIL filed by petitioner Anindya Sundar Das had made a reference to a recent incident wherein after a bus owned by the South Bengal State Transport Corporation met a disastrous fate on May 2 at Kanaidanga crossing in Memari on the NH-19 highway. The speeding bus fell into a ditch after hitting the railing of a bridge injuring seven passengers. The bus bearing registration number WB – 39B/4590 was plying on Karunamoyee (Kolkata) – Asansol route.

The petition had further averred that the concerned bus was neither having a certificate of fitness or a valid insurance policy. It had been further stipulated that under Section 56 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 a vehicle must mandatorily have a certificate of fitness.

The petitioner had further sought directions to ensure that such State-owned public transport buses display in the Board of the respective vehicles documents such as certificate of registration, certificate of fitness, insurance policies including the driving license of the driver to secure the safety of passengers.

Taking cognisance of the grievance raised, a Bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj directed the respondent authorities to file an affidavit-in-opposition within a period of 4 weeks. Furthermore, the exception to the affidavit-in-opposition was ordered to be filed within 2 weeks thereafter. 

Accordingly, the matter has been listed for further hearing on July 19. 

Case Title: Anindya Sundar Das v. State of West Bengal