SC Denies plea on road safety, cites traffic regulation as administrative matter

The Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea on the issue of road safety, saying it cannot monitor how traffic has to be regulated and cameras have to be installed as these are "administrative matters".

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea on the issue of road safety, saying it cannot monitor how traffic has to be regulated and cameras have to be installed as these are “administrative matters”.

The plea came up for hearing before a bench of Justices S K Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia.

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The counsel appearing for the petitioner told the bench that the plea relates to the issue of road safety.

The plea claimed provisions under the Motor Vehicles Act were not being properly implemented by the states.

“You want us to run the motor vehicle system? You want to monitor on everybody’s head? That is what you are saying? That is what you want the Supreme Court to do, to open a transport department here and monitor how traffic has to be regulated, how cameras have to be put,” the bench observed, adding all these are “administrative matters”.

The bench said the petitioner is seeking to call every state before the court.

It said, “Look at this, we should call all states here, get everybody here and jamboree here. For what purpose?” After the bench said it was not inclined to entertain the petition, the counsel sought permission to withdraw the plea.

“After some arguments, counsel for the petitioner seeks to withdraw the petition… Dismissed as withdrawn,” the bench said.