The High Court of Meghalaya wanted the government to address overloading of vehicles passing through weighbridges by conducting spot verification which will also check revenue loss.
The division Chief Justice IP Mukherji and Justice W Diengdoh said during the hearing of the PIL on Wednesday that the writ petitioner Tennydard Marak through his lawyer P Agarwal complained of overloaded vehicles being allowed to pass with impunity through weighbridges by government officials. Agarwal was assisted by PWA Majumdar Z R Majumdar.
Another complain was of malfunctioning weighbridges. This results in a huge revenue loss for the government. This revenue is realisable by way of overloading fee, cess and royalty in case of export materials, fine and so on.
“We admitted the petition on 5th December, 2024 and directed an inspection to be made by government officials to ascertain the truth of the statements in the petition and invited a report from the Commissioner of Transport.We have heard learned counsel for the parties.A proper inspection in terms of our order, for whatever reason has not been carried out till date”, the court said.First of all, there is a dispute between the parties with regard to the number of weighbridges to be covered .Secondly, the counsel for the petitioner says that her client did not receive notice of inspection in terms of the court order datedDecember 5 last at the proper time. Any inspection claimed to be done by the government was done without notice to the petitioner.Advocate General submitted that his government is agreeable to conduct a fresh inspection.
The court hence directed to prepare a list of weighbridges. The list should be prepared and sent by the government to the petitioner by February 19. If the petitioner thinks that some weighbridge has been left out he will indicate that to the government.
Accordingly, the list will be finalised. The list of weighbridges· thus prepared by the government will be treated as final.A spot inspection for two hours shall be conducted by the respondents during a time period when vehicular traffic is the greatest through each of the weighbridges maintaining the secrecy as mentioned in order dated December 5 last, the court said.
Inspection of all the weighbridges will be concluded by April 30. A report is also to be filed in terms of the order dated December 5 2024 by May 2 this year. The schedule for inspection may be set by the respondents, considering the convenience of the petitioner, the court said.
The PIL will be taken up again on March 8.
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