The Chhattisgarh High Court has directed the Secretary, Transport Department, State of Chhattisgarh to file his personal affidavit with respect to the steps which have been taken in light of news reports that no fitness test is being conducted at the automated fitness centre.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Bibhu Datta Guru registered a Suo Motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the basis of news item published in the daily newspaper dated 14th August, 2024 with a state that no fitness test is being conducted for the last one week at automated fitness center because of some technical fault in the machine. Because of the said reason the fitness of thousands of vehicles could not be tested. The machine could not be repaired because the engineer has to come from outside. There was no responsible person available to inform as to when the said fitness testing machine would start functioning. The capacity of the fitness testing center is stated to be 72 heavy motor vehicles and 72 light motor vehicles per day.
One private company was granted a contract in the month of November 2023 for the said work. Neither the Regional Transport Officer nor the company is taking any interest in repairing the fitness testing machine. The company does not have any alternative arrangement. The said company has been granted contract for 7 districts namely Bilaspur, Raipur, Durg, Bastar, Surguja, Korba and Rajnandgaon. The company earns more than Rs. 1.5 Lacs per day but still the aforesaid situation is prevailing. Even the Ambulances are lying because of the breaking down of the fitness testing machine.
Another news report of the same date states that the fitness center has turned into a resting place for the cattle. The people are made to run from pillar to post in order to get a fitness certificate.
The Court noted that the aforesaid situation is causing great trouble to the public at large as the responsible officers of the concerned department are not taking any interest in either repairing the fitness testing machine or providing any alternate arrangement to the people.
On a query made by the High Court to Prafull Bharat, Advocate General with regard to the aforesaid situation, he submits that the testing machine was found to be in out of order and steps have been taken to make the same functional and the new machine has been also made available for testing the fitness of the vehicles and such an Ambulance etc.
“In view of the above, the respondent No. 2 i.e. Secretary, Transport Department, State of Chhattisgarh is directed to file his personal affidavit with respect to the steps which have been taken in light of the aforesaid news reports. He shall also inform this Court through the affidavit that if any such situation is existing in other districts of the State, then the steps taken in that regard shall also be informed,” the Court directed and listed the matter on 27th August, 2024.