Hearing on driving licence law amid Motor Vehicles Act amendment proposals deferred to July 30 by SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred the hearing to July 30 on the legal question of whether a person holding a driving licence for a light motor vehicle is also entitled to drive a transport vehicle with an unladen weight not exceeding 7,500 kg.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud adjourned the matter after Attorney General R Venkataramani submitted a note indicating that the consultations carried out by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways have culminated in proposals for amending the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 that will be put before the newly constituted Parliament following the general elections.

"By its communication dated April 15, 2024, the Ministry has placed on the record the details of the proposed amendment to the statute."

"In view of the impending General Elections, the Attorney General for India requests that these proceedings may be deferred until the last week of July 2024 so as to enable the Union government to bring forth a proposal for the amendment of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 before the newly constituted Parliament following the General Elections," the bench said.

The impact, if any, of the amendment which is proposed on the reference will be decided in the course of the hearing, as per the bench, which also constitutes justices Hrishikesh Roy, P S Narasimha, Pankaj Mithal and Manoj Misra.

"In view of the above position, we stand over the hearing of the reference to the Constitution Bench to 30 July 2024," the bench said.

The apex court had earlier asked the Union government if a change in law is warranted on the legal question of whether a person holding a driving licence for a light motor vehicle is entitled to legally drive a transport vehicle of a particular weight.

It had earlier sought the assistance of the attorney general in dealing with the legal question.

The constitution bench had said that knowing the position of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will be necessary after it was argued that the apex court’s 2017 verdict in the case of Mukund Dewangan versus Oriental Insurance Company Limited was accepted by the Centre and rules were amended to align them with the judgement.

In the Mukund Dewangan case, a three-judge bench of the top court had held that transport vehicles, the gross weight of which does not exceed 7,500 kg, are not excluded from the definition of LMV.

"There may be lakhs of drivers across the country who are working on the basis of Dewangan judgment. This is not a constitutional issue. It is purely a statutory issue,” the bench had said.

"This is just not the question of law but also the social impact of the law… Road safety has to be balanced with the social purpose of the law and you have to see if this causes serious hardships. We cannot decide issues of social policy in a constitution bench," it had said.

On July 18 last year, the constitution bench commenced hearing as many as 76 petitions to deal with the legal question.

It had then heard the arguments of senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for one of the petitioners, on alleged anomalies in the Motor Vehicle Act about regimes for dealing with the grant of driving licenses for different categories of vehicles.

The lead petition was filed by M/s Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co Ltd.

The Motor Vehicle Act provides for different regimes for the granting of driving licences for different categories of vehicles. The matter was referred to the larger bench on March 8, 2022, by a three-judge bench headed by Justice U U Lalit, since retired.

It was said that certain provisions of the law were not noticed by the apex court in the Mukund Dewangan judgement and "the controversy in question needs to be revisited".