Chennai: The Madras High Court has quashed an April 2018 Central government notification increasing the speed limit on highways and expressways.
The Union government through a notification on 6 April, 2018 had increased the speed limit of motor vehicles to 120 km/hr on expressways, 100 km/hr on four-lane highways and 70 km/hr on roads within municipal limits.
Quashing the Centre’s order, Justices N Kirubakaran (since retired) and T V Thamilselvi also ordered that the speed limit should be maintained as per the 5 August, 2014 notification since most road accidents were caused due to speeding on highways and municipal roads.
Though the Centre had claimed that the 2018 notification was issued due to availability of better engines and improvement of roads, the Judges said non-compliance of road rules by motorists had, however, not changed.
The Bench pointed out that data released by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, showed that overspeeding was the major cause of road accidents which had kept increasing every year.
‘It was 66.7 per cent in 2017, 55.73 per cent in 2018 and 64.4 per cent in 2019’, the Judges said.
The Judges directed the Tamilnadu government also to issue a notification fixing speed limits.
Meanwhile, bumper-to-bumper insurance cover for new vehicles will not be mandatory as suggested by the Madras High Court in its order last month. Instead, the decision to make it mandatory or not will be left to the legislators and the parliament.
On Monday, the court decided to modify its order, which had said that whenever a new vehicle is sold after 1 September 2021, it is mandatory for coverage of bumper-to-bumper insurance every year, in addition to covering the driver, passengers, and owner of the vehicle, for a period of five years.
The court said the main motive behind this rule was the safety of the passengers. It further said that it will add suggestions to the current order and the necessary rules would be left to the law-making parliament.