The Delhi High Court has sought the Centre and Delhi government‘s stand on a plea seeking upgradation of technology and infrastructure to monitor traffic violations and ensuring effective functioning. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice on a public interest litigation by Sonali Karwasra, a lawyer, and granted time to the respondents to file replies.
“Learned counsel (for respondents) seek time to file counter affidavits. Time as prayed for is granted. Let counter affidavits be filed, before the next date of hearing,” said the court in its order dated December 8.
The petitioner claimed that there are several lacunae in the effective implementation of the traffic rules because of obsolete and outdated technologies used by the authorities to detect violations.
“The technology used is not standardised and the same has led to various instances wherein hefty fines have been issued on the innocent due to faulty equipment and technology used by the traffic police. The speed limit violation detection technology, the drunken driving breath analysing technology and the red light violation technology are not in accordance with the changing times,” the petition stated.
The petition cited that due to technological errors, more than 1.57 lakh challans issued for over speeding were called back in 2019 by the traffic department here.
“Another such incident is where a person is slapped with four different challans for jumping one single red light. The four challans are timed at a gap of one second, three seconds and then one second. It is unfathomable that a car can jump one red light four times within five seconds, however, the person slapped with this challan is left with no other option but to pay the challan online as no option for challenging the same in court is available on the website,” the petition claimed.
It is the common man who has to bear the brunt of lapses and irregularities when he is subjected to hefty fines, it stated.
In the petition, the petitioner prayed for a direction to the authorities to adopt the international standards in technology and provide appropriate training to the traffic police personnel.
A prayer is also made to direct the authorities to constitute a committee to re-assess the effectiveness of the technology in place.
The matter would be heard next on March 28.
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