The Appeal Court has delivered a judgement against the hawkish Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) who harass motorists on the road, especially in towns.
The officers often pick “soft targets” – female drivers, transporters of goods, rickety vehicles (even when their official vehicles should be better off-road) to perpetrate their orgy of intimidation and bribe collection.
The VIOs neither charge the motorists to court nor channel the “fine” collected from them to the state coffers.
A motorist who was recently granted relief by the Appeal Court wrote:
“At the end of the day, the court delivered judgment in my favour and declared that VIOs – or whatever name they are called – have no business even being on the road, first and foremost.
They have no business stopping vehicles to ask for any documents. The judge was particular that their work and duty should be done at their offices, not on the road. The judge said, ‘You don’t inspect vehicles on the road; you inspect vehicles at your workshop or office, and the best time to do that is during annual vehicle licence renewal.’ The judge also said that they had no authority to even stop any private vehicle, demanding any document whatsoever.”
Courtesy: Punch Newspaper