SC permits LMV driving licence holders to drive transport vehicles with weight up to 7,500 kg
New Delhi (PTI): In a relief for commercial vehicle drivers, the Supreme Court on Wednesday held that a person holding a driving licence for a light motor vehicle (LMV) is also entitled to drive a transport vehicle with an unladen weight not exceeding 7,500 kg.
The judgement of a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud is a jolt to insurance companies which had been rejecting claims if accidents involved transport vehicles of a particular weight and if the drivers were not authorised to drive them as per legal stipulation.
“There is no empirical data that LMV driving licence holders are responsible for rise in road accidents in the country,” Justice Hrishikesh Roy, who wrote the unanimous verdict for the bench, said.
He said the LMV driving licence holders, who spent maximum time behind the wheels, are seeking an answer from the court and their grievances cannot be rejected on technical grounds.
Besides the CJI and Justice Roy, the bench also comprised Justices P S Narasimha, Pankaj Mithal and Manoj Misra.
The bench had reserved its verdict on August 21 on the vexatious legal issue after Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, had submitted that the consultations to amend the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, 1988 are "almost complete".
The top court asked the Centre to complete the exercise of amending the law at the earliest.
The legal question, which was answered by the bench, was whether a person holding a driving licence for a light motor vehicle (LMV) is also entitled to drive a transport vehicle with an unladen weight not exceeding 7,500 kg.
The issue has given rise to various disputes over payment of claims by insurance companies in accident cases involving transport vehicles being driven by those possessing licences to drive LMVs.
The insurance firms have been alleging that the motor accident claim tribunals (MACTs) and the courts have been passing orders asking them to pay insurance claims, disregarding their objections with regard to the LMV driving licence.
The courts have been adopting a pro-insured approach while deciding insurance claim disputes, the insurance firms had said.
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Bad timing: Fraudsters call senior Indore cop during press briefing to pull off 'digital arrest'
Indore, Nov 24: Some online fraudsters got their target and timing horribly wrong on Sunday after they attempted to "digitally arrest" a senior police official with an automated call over "credit card misuse" while he was addressing a press conference in Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
"The caller informed that I had misused my credit card and as a result a case had been registered with Andheri West police station in Mumbai. I was having a press briefing at the time. I was told my bank account would be blocked and was asked to visit the police station in two hours," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) of Indore crime branch Rajesh Dandotia told PTI.
The official said he told the caller he would not be able to make it to Mumbai from Indore at such short notice.
"The caller told me he would be connect me to someone from the police station. He then connected me to another person, who asked me to wait. He said he would talk to his senior officer to see if my statement could be recorded via video call. When he saw me in police uniform, he immediately disconnected the video call," the official narrated.
Dandotia said he asked media persons to record a video so that people can be made aware of such cyber crimes and digital arrest.
Digital arrest is a modus operandi of cyber criminals who threaten a person with arrest, force the person to remain confined in a room while keeping him or her under electronic surveillance and then extort money on the pretext of "clearing" him or her of charges.
जब एडीसीपी क्राइम इंदौर को ही आ गया डिजिटल अरेस्ट के लिए कॉल pic.twitter.com/H965PKz1Mo
— SanjayGupta_Journalist (@sanjaygupta1304) November 24, 2024
