The Rest of the Motor Vehicles Act II: Conductors and Registration

Ending or suspending registration.

• Sections 53 and 54. Suspension of registration where the vehicle is in an unsafe condition or fails to comply with the Act, and cancellation of a suspended registration.
• Section 55. Cancellation of registration, including where the vehicle has been destroyed or permanently rendered incapable of use.
• Section 56. Certificate of fitness of transport vehicles. This is the certificate section 158(1)(e) requires a driver to produce.
• Section 57. Appeals.
• Sections 58 and 59. Special provisions for transport vehicles, and the power to fix the age limit of a motor vehicle.
• Section 60. Registration of vehicles belonging to the Central Government.
• Section 61. Application of the Chapter to trailers.

Records and rules.

• Section 62. Information about stolen and recovered vehicles, furnished by the police to the State Transport Authority.
• Section 63. Maintenance of State Registers of Motor Vehicles.
• Sections 64 and 65. Rules by the Central and the State Government.

Where this touches the claim

Finding the defendant. Section 160 obliges a registering authority or the officer in charge of a police station to furnish, on payment of the prescribed fee, the identification marks and other particulars of the vehicle and the name and address of the person using it. That information exists because of sections 41, 50 and 63.

Who is the owner. Liability under sections 164 and 166 attaches to the owner, and ownership is what the register records; section 50 is the section under which it changes.

Insurance follows the vehicle. Section 157 deems the certificate of insurance and the policy transferred with the ownership of the vehicle, with rights and liabilities, and requires the transferee to apply to the insurer within fourteen days.

Fitness and unsafe vehicles. Sections 53, 55 and 56 supply the standard against which a claim that the vehicle itself was unroadworthy is judged, and section 190 makes using a vehicle in an unsafe condition an offence.

A worked example

Nandita buys a car in March and pays for it, but the transfer of ownership is not reported. In July the car, driven by her, injures a cyclist.

Whose name is in the register? The seller's, because section 50 requires the transfer to be reported and the certificate of registration amended, and until then the record is unchanged.

Whom does the cyclist sue? The owner, and the register is only evidence of who that is; section 160 lets him obtain the particulars of the vehicle and of the person who was using it at the time.

Is the car insured for him? Yes. By section 157(1) the certificate of insurance and the policy are deemed transferred to Nandita from the date of transfer, with the rights and liabilities, and section 157(2)'s fourteen-day application is a duty rather than a condition of cover.

The car had failed its fitness test the previous year and its registration had been suspended. Then it should not have been driven at all: section 39 forbids driving a vehicle whose certificate of registration has been suspended, and using a vehicle in an unsafe condition is an offence under section 190.

Quick revision

1. Section 29: no person may act as conductor of a stage carriage without an effective conductor's licence, and none may be employed without one; sections 30 to 38 deal with grant, disqualification, revocation, appeals and rules.
2. Section 39: no unregistered vehicle may be driven, or caused or permitted to be driven, in any public place or in any other place, and its certificate of registration must be neither suspended nor cancelled.
3. Sections 40 to 45: where and how registration is made, temporary registration, production of the vehicle, and refusal.
4. Sections 46 to 52: registration effective throughout India, new registration marks on removal, no objection certificates, change of residence, transfer of ownership, hire-purchase endorsements, and alterations.
5. Sections 53 to 61: suspension and cancellation, certificates of fitness for transport vehicles, appeals, age limits and trailers.
6. Sections 62 to 65: stolen and recovered vehicles, State Registers of Motor Vehicles, and rules by the Central and State Governments.

Test yourself

1. Outline the scheme of registration of motor vehicles, and explain its bearing on a claim for compensation. Chapter IV, sections 39 to 65, forbids any person to drive, and any owner to cause or permit the driving of, a motor vehicle in any public place or in any other place unless it is registered under the Chapter, its certificate of registration stands unsuspended and uncancelled, and it carries a registration mark displayed in the prescribed manner, a vehicle in a dealer's possession being excepted. Sections 40 to 45 provide where and how registration is to be made, for temporary registration, for the production of the vehicle and for refusal of registration or renewal. Section 46 makes registration effective throughout India, and sections 47 to 49 deal with a new registration mark on removal to another State, the no objection certificate and change of residence or place of business. Section 50 governs the transfer of ownership, section 51 vehicles held under hire-purchase, lease or hypothecation, and section 52 alterations to a vehicle, including those made for a person with a physical disability. Sections 53 to 55 provide for suspension and cancellation of registration, section 56 for the certificate of fitness of transport vehicles, and sections 58 to 61 for special provisions as to transport vehicles, the age limit of vehicles, Government vehicles and trailers. Sections 62 and 63 provide for information about stolen and recovered vehicles and for State Registers of Motor Vehicles.

The bearing on a claim is practical. Liability under sections 164 and 166 falls on the owner, and the register is what identifies him; section 160 allows a claimant who has only a registration number to obtain the particulars of the vehicle and of the person using it; section 157 makes the certificate of insurance and the policy pass with the ownership of the vehicle; and the fitness provisions supply the measure of a complaint that the vehicle was unroadworthy.