RTO and police cannot impound driving licence:
20 Feb 2011
MADURAI: Neither Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) nor police personnel have the authority to impound the driving licence of a person involved in a motor accident without issuing a show cause notice to him/her, the Madras High Court Bench here has said.
Justice V. Dhanapalan made the observation while allowing a writ petition filed by a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation driver, S. Palanikumar, who claimed that the RTO (Madurai South) impounded his licence without giving any opportunity to explain his stand.
Directive to RTO
The judge directed the RTO to return the petitioner's driving licence forthwith and held that the RTO could, however, initiate necessary proceedings against the petitioner as enunciated under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
Specific period
He pointed out that Section 19 (1) of the Act empowers the licensing authority to disqualify a person from holding or obtaining a driving licence for a specific period.
The Section also states that the licence could be revoked.
Further, Section 20 (1) of the Act empowers the authority concerned to disqualify a person from holding a driving licence for a specific period when he/she had been convicted for an offence under the Act. Section 21 of the Act makes a driving licence become suspended if a case had been registered against the holder of the licence on the allegation of causing death or grievous injury to one or more persons due to dangerous driving.
Section 19 (1) categorically states that the licensing authority must give an opportunity to a licence holder to present his view before impounding the licence.
However, in the present case, no such notice had been given, the judge said.
He also pointed out that the Government Advocate had conceded that the RTO had not initiated any proceeding under the Motor Vehicles Act even after impounding the petitioner's driving licence.
