State not empowered to frame rules for motor driving schools: Allahabad High Court
Prayagraj(PTI): The Allahabad High Court has held that Section 27 of Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 empowers the central government to make rules for licensing and regulating motor driving training schools.The state government is not competent to frame rules in this regard.
The Uttar Pradesh government had issued an order in 2023 laying down Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for private motor driving training schools and their operation which was challenged before the High Court.
Allowing the writ petition filed by UP Motor Training School Owners Association and seven others, a high court bench comprising Justices Anjani Kumar Mishra and Jayant Banerji struck down the government order.
The counsel for the petitioners had submitted that the central government alone has the power to make rules for the purpose of licensing and regulating schools or establishments for imparting instructions in driving of motor vehicles and related matters.
The bench in its order dated October 25, 2024 observed, "Section 28 of the Act which empowers the state government to frame rules clearly bars it from framing rules regarding which the power vests with the central government."
"Various paras and clauses of the impugned Government Order by which the petitioner is aggrieved, in our considered opinion clearly fall within the domain of rule-making power of Central Government alone," the bench said.
"The submission of learned Standing Counsel that the impugned Government Order merely supplements the rules framed by the central government cannot be accepted," the court added.
Welcoming the judgment, KM Bajpai, President of UP Motor Training School Owners Association said, "We expect that while taking any further decision, the state would take care of the interest of motor driving school operators."
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Several Indians inducted into Russian Army remain missing: Report
New Delhi: In a concerning development, several Indians who were illegally enlisted in the Russian Army and forcibly sent to the war zone on the Russia-Ukraine border are reportedly still missing.
According to a report published by The Hindu on Sunday, citing communication from the Ministry of External Affairs and statements from the families of two missing men, Mohammad Amin Sheikh, a 65-year-old resident of Kupwara in Tangdhar, Jammu and Kashmir, said that his 27-year-old son, Zahoor Sheikh, last contacted the family on December 31, 2023.
Amin Sheikh mentioned that his son said that he was going for training and would not be available for the next three months on phone. “But when we started getting news about the deaths of Indians in Russia in January, we got worried and called on his number. We could not reach him. We are yet to hear from him,” Sheikh, a retired Inspector from the Public Health Department in Jammu and Kashmir, was quoted as saying by the publication.
Last week, Mohammad Amin Sheikh and his two other sons travelled to New Delhi to seek answers from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Russian Embassy after the Indian Embassy in Moscow failed to give them information about Zahoor Sheikh.
“We submitted a petition at the Russian Embassy,” 31-year-old Aijaz Amin, Zahoor Sheikh’s elder brother, told The Hindu. “They said they are looking into the matter. The MEA officials said that at least 15 Indians are still missing and though the Russian government is cooperative, their commanders on the ground are not responsive,” he added.
Zahoor had travelled to Russia after he came across a YouTube video promising the job of a security helper in Russia. Instead, he was reportedly deceived into joining the Russian Army.
Similarly, 30-year-old Mandeep, from Jalandhar in Punjab, has been missing since March. His brother, Jagdeep Kumar, also arrived in Delhi, looking for answers from the government about his sibling's whereabouts.
“We last spoke on March 3. He initially went to Armenia and was supposed to go to Italy from there in search of work. Instead, he was tricked by an agent to go to Russia and was forced to join the Russian Army. He was sent to the war zone after a few days of training,” Kumar told The Hindu.
Kumar said he met officials from the External Affairs Ministry in the capital city, who told him that at least 25 Indians were reported missing in Russia.
