Police cannot coerce people to pay traffic challans: HC

The Telangana High Court connected Tuesday directed the State constabulary authorities ‘not to follow immoderate coercive measures for betterment of postulation challans already issued oregon pending’. 

The bid was passed by Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar of the HC successful a batch of 2 writ petitions filed by a backstage worker V. Raghavendra Chary questioning antithetic aspects of imposing postulation challans and collecting the aforesaid from conveyance drivers. While instructing officials not to edifice to coercive measures for postulation of postulation regularisation usurpation related good amounts, the justice made it wide that officials were ‘at liberty to initiate due proceedings for prosecution of postulation offenders earlier the competent court’.

The justice besides clarified that the bid was ‘confined to the enactment of the authorities portion initiating enactment against postulation violators’. The authorities were not being barred from checking the commuters successful the accustomed course, the justice said.

Justice Shravan Kumar noted that the authorities tin cod the good amounts if the postulation regularisation violators were “willing to wage the pending challans”. 

If the challans remained unpaid, the violators acrophobic should look the prosecution successful the court. 

The officials tin instrumentality enactment successful this respect strictly successful accordance with law, the justice noted. The petitioner’s counsel Vijay Gopal argued that arsenic per GO Ms. No. 108 of 2011 the government can compound the offences relating to postulation rules usurpation nether Section 200 of the Motor Vehicles Act-1988. It mandated that a notification should beryllium issued for this. However, till day nary specified notification was issued, the counsel said. 

In the lack of specified notification, the authorities should person taken steps to prosecute the postulation regularisation violators. Instead of prosecution, the authorities were coercing the nationalist to marque postulation challan payments, helium contended. He further argued that nether Section 200 of the Act, the authorities had nary powerfulness to compound offences connected to postulation regularisation violations. 

The proceeding was adjourned to February 3.