Wednesday, 15 February 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Uttarakhand police have no authority to check documents of public vehicles and seize them due to a lack of relevant documents as per the law. The president of the Dehradun Mahanagar City Bus Seva Mahasangh, Vijay Vardhan Dandriyal made this claim on Tuesday on the basis of information received through the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the Transport department. He said that he had sought information from the department regarding the use of sections 158, 206, and 207 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1998 by the police on October 6, 2021 and got the reply to his application on February 6, 2023. He said that as per section 158 of the MV Act,
police can demand to check the documents of vehicles operating in a public place if authorised by the respective State government but the Uttarakhand government has not given any such right to the police as per the information provided by the Transport department under RTI. He said that the police are also authorised to detain vehicles in absence of relevant documents under sections 206 and 207 of the MV act only with the respective State government’s authorisation but no such authority has been given to the police here. Dandriyal said that officials from any department, except the Transport department, have no right to take action under these sections of the MV act. He said, “The Uttarakhand government has given this authority only to the Transport department. It is questionable why these powers have not been given to police officials yet but currently, they have no right to demand documents or seize vehicles as per the law. Despite this, police continue to harass the public in the name of checking documents, seize their vehicles as part of their checking and impose hefty fines.” Dandriyal said that they will approach the court against such harassment and violation of law under the MV Act by the police.
