PIL on fake vehicle registration heard
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 30 2018:
The Division Bench High Court of Manipur, comprising of Acting Chief Justice N Kotiswar and Justice Kh Nobin, has included the District Transport Officer of Imphal East as a respondent in the PIL case regarding the alleged large scale fake registration of stolen vehicles in the State today and has directed the DTO to reply within two weeks.
On the other hand, as per the directive given by the Court on December 13 last year Director of Transport also submitted necessary affidavits before the Court today.
During the PIL hearing today, the petitioner's counsel Th Deepak, prayed for allowing two weeks time to file the reply to the affidavits filed by the Transport Director.
The application also prayed to the Court to include the District Transport Officer of Imphal East as a respondent in the PIL case.
The counsel submitted that the petitioner had filed an RTI to SPIO, Transport Department, Imphal East, on August 25 (2017), seeking information related to the vehicle registered at District Transport Office, Imphal East, and also sought information from DTO Imphal East, regarding the total number of Toyota Fortuner (all models), Tata Safari, Hyundai Creta and Mahindra XUV500 registered at the office.
He further submitted that in response to the said RTI, the DTO of Imphal East, Thiyam Dinachandra provided a letter on January 6, officially informing the petitioner that no Toyota Fortuner and Tata Safari were registered with Imphal East DTO.
However, the DTO informed that there are many Toyota Fortuners and Tata Safari bearing the registration mark of Imphal East DTO, plying in the State, as well as many Hyundai Creta and Mahindra XUV500 (for which the DTO did not provide information to the petitioner).
It was further submitted that the petitioner was surprised to see a Toyota Fortuner bearing registration number MN06-LA-1234, plying along the road.
To check the vehicle's details, the petitioner sent an SMS to VAHAN and as per the computer generated vehicle details, he found that the vehicle is registered in the name of Letpao Haokip, the elected member of Chandel A/C and the Minister of Irrigation and Flood Control, Manipur.
The counsel questioned as to why the DTO Imphal East did not provide the RTI information of many vehicles, including the said Toyota Fortuner, to the petitioner correctly.
The counsel further submitted that there are many Hyundai Creta vehicles whose details/particulars are intentionally kept hidden by the DTO Imphal East, such as Hyundai Creta with registration numbers MN06-LA-1188 and MN06-LA-1189.He also submitted that the information sought by the petitioner from the authority by filing RTI was denied and mentioned that the petitioner strongly believes that the documents were denied as the DTOs are assisting the gang involved in the fake vehicle registration, by providing registration numbers without proper documents which are necessary under the Motor Vehicle Act 1988.After hearing the submission of the petitioner's counsel, the Court issued notice to the DTO Imphal East to submit a reply within two weeks.
Advocate P Tamphamani, the counsel assisting Advocate General N Kumarjit, accepted the notice on behalf of the State and the matter was listed for hearing on February 19.It may be mentioned that the PIL was filed by Prasanta Oinam, through Advocate Th Deepak on October 25 last year and the Court admitted the PIL the same day.
The PIL was filed on the behalf of the people of Manipur, to stop the illegal practice of issuing registration numbers without proper verification/procedures as well as to punish the people involved in the process.
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