CHENNAI: Citing public interest in the union government’s ban on bull bars (crash guards) in fourwheelers, Madras high court has refused to quash a notification, but said VIP vehicles also should not bs exempted from the vigour.
“At the end of the day, it appears that public interest may have impelled the central government to issue the notice and, on a matter of policy where the government perceives that a thing is necessary in public interest, the court would not willy-nilly intervene unless it finds the policy to be absurd or objectionable to the meanest mind,” the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu said.
“It is hoped that the enforcement is across the board and that the so called important persons are not exempted from the rule,” the court observed.
It may also do well to take judicial notice of the larger, higher private passenger vehicles that are fitted with crash guards and behave as bullies on roads, particularly on highways, the first bench said.
The court passed the order on a batch of pleas moved by manufacturers of such bull bars seeking to quash the notification issued by the union government dated December 7, 2017 and pleas seeking strict implementation of the notification. The manufacturers claimed that there is no basis to the notification, nor is it evident that any empirical study has been conducted to ascertain the perceived ill-effects of crash guards.
The petitioners in favour of the ban submitted that vehicles armed with heavy duty crash guards encourage the drivers to indulge in wanton rash driving.
Recording the submissions, the court said: “To the extent that crash guards add to the length of the car or, as the manufacturers suggest, provide greater security to the front of a car and, thereby alter the basic features of a motor vehicle, there appears to be sufficient basis in the issuance of the notification.”
The court further recorded that the state government's stand that it has accepted the union's instructions and has enforced the prohibition in such regard in the state.
