Supreme Court Asks Patna High Court To Decide Pleas Challenging Notification Prohibiting Trucks Of 14 Wheels & More From Transporting Sand & Stone Chips

The Supreme Court on January 3, 2022 requested Patna High Court to decide the petitions filed by Bihar Truck Owners Association challenging State of Bihar's notification dated December 16, 2020 which prohibited trucks of 14 wheels and more from transporting sand and stone chips ("impugned notification") that are pending before the High Court within 8 weeks.

Along with prohibiting, the impugned notification also fixed the body height of trucks of six wheels and 10 wheels to maximum limit.

The bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose although declined to entertain the petition but granted liberty to the petitioners (Bihar Truck Owners Association) to file an application for expeditious disposal of the writ petition.

"We hope and trust that the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court will ensure that either the writ petition itself is disposed of expeditiously, preferably within eight weeks from filing of such application, or the application of the petitioner for grant of interim order is considered within the said period," bench said in its order.

The petitioners had contended before the Top Court that the petitioners had earlier also approached the Top Court challenging the notification that was disposed of on February 17, 2021 while requesting the High Court to decide the matter at an early date.

Petitioners had also contended that more than 10 months had passed but nothing had proceeded in the matter except for direction to implead certain parties.

Considering the case history proceeding of the writ pending before the High Court filed by the petitioner which showed that the matter was adjourned from time to time and irrespective of the same being listed on more than two dozen dates had not been decided and heard, the bench requested the High Court to consider the matter at the earliest.

Case Title: Bihar Truck Owners Association Versus The State Of Bihar & Ors.| Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s).1366/2021

Coram: Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose

Counsel(s): Senior Advocate C.U. Singh, Advocate(s) Bansuri Swaraj, Siddhesh Kotwal, Ana Upadhyay, Manya Hasija, Pragya Barsaiyan, Akash Singh and Advocate on Record Nirnimesh Dube

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