Light motor vehicle driving license holders will be able to drive vehicles weighing up to 7500 kg: Supreme Court order – ..

LMV Driving License Update: The Supreme Court on Wednesday made it clear that Light Motor Vehicle (LMV) driving license holders will be able to drive heavy transport vehicles weighing up to 7,500 kg. This decision of the five-judge constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud is a big blow to the insurance companies. The company was trying to avoid paying the insurance amount on this basis. A bench of five judges rejected his claim. Under the new rule, the way has now been cleared for driving light commercial vehicles including small elephants besides cars with LMV license. However, it will be mandatory for people to obtain a separate license to drive big trucks.

All five judges were unanimous on this issue. Justice Hrishikesh Roy, who wrote the judgment, said there was no concrete evidence to suggest that LMV license holders were responsible for the increase in road accidents. He stressed that the complaints of drivers with LMV licenses, who spend the most time on the road, are legitimate and cannot be dismissed on technical grounds. In the present case, the bench heard arguments on security and livelihood for seven days from July 2023. In March 2022, a three-judge bench sent the issue to the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court for hearing.

There was an error in the 2017 court decision

It was then found that the Court’s 2017 judgment in the case Mukund Dewangan vs. Oriental Insurance Company Limited had not taken into account certain provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, while holding that a transport vehicle weighing less than 7500 kg would be an LMV. will be. However the case first focused on security and regulatory issues. Later it took into account the livelihood of thousands of workers who drive LMVs for transportation purposes.

what was the problem?

In the Mukund Dewangan case, a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a person holding a driving license under section 10(2)(d) of the MVA should be allowed to drive a transport vehicle (section 10 of the MVA (2)(e)) will require a separate license to operate. This is because its weight was less than 7500 kg before any goods were loaded on it. The three-judge bench had held that “a transport vehicle and omnibus, neither of which has a gross vehicle weight exceeding 7500 kg, will be a light motor vehicle.” In March 2022, in the Bajaj Allianz General Insurance vs. Rambha Devi case, several insurance companies approached the court saying that Mukund Dewangan made a mistake by allowing LMV license holders to drive transport vehicles