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The Supreme Court has issued a very strict and important order regarding violation of road safety and traffic rules. The Supreme Court of the country has clearly said that it is not acceptable under any circumstances that an overloaded truck or other commercial vehicle can move ahead simply by paying the penalty. The Supreme Court has emphasized that vehicles carrying more than the prescribed carrying capacity should not be allowed to move unless the excess load is completely removed from them.
Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K.V. Vishwanathan’s bench gave these instructions while hearing a case related to road safety and effective compliance of motor vehicle rules. The court appointed Advocate K.C. Accepted the application filed by Jain, in which many important suggestions were given to stop overloading, citing serious threats to road safety.
Considering the seriousness of the matter, the Supreme Court has issued strict instructions to all the states, union territories of the country, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and related road authorities. During the hearing, the petitioner explained to the court that in the present system, allowing overloaded vehicles to move forward only by collecting additional fees or challan, completely defeats the basic objective of road safety.
Agreeing with these arguments, the court has directed that if any transport vehicle is found carrying more load than the limit prescribed under the Motor Vehicles Act, then it should not be allowed to move at all beyond the place of investigation. Whether overloading is detected at a toll plaza, check post or any other enforcement point, it will be mandatory to remove the excess load from the vehicle before it can proceed further.
The court has also emphasized on the use of technology to monitor and effectively curb overloading on the roads. Based on the suggestions given in the application, it has been said that ‘Weight in Motion’ and ‘Weighbridge System’ will be linked to the toll management system and electronic enforcement system under Section 136A of the Motor Vehicles Act and Rule 167A of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules. Its main objective is to ensure that even if a vehicle moves from one state to another, the action taken against overloading continues uninterrupted.
Apart from this, the Court has also directed the States and Union Territories to provide adequate police assistance to the authorized officers and NHAI as and when required. Also, regular records of all data related to identification of overloaded vehicles, issuing challan, removal of excess load, functioning of weighing equipment and allowing vehicles to move against rules should be maintained so that transparency is maintained.
Citing the annual report of the Ministry of Road Transport for the last five years (from 2019 to 2023), it was said in Adarji that a total of 1,40,945 road accidents occurred in the country during these five years only due to uncontrolled and excessive loading of vehicles, in which 60,082 people lost their lives. These figures in themselves testify to how big and deadly a threat overloading has become to road safety. After this historic order of the Supreme Court, the ongoing campaigns and strictness against overloading across the country are expected to increase further.