The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Regional Transport Offices in Madurai to issue fitness certificates to taxis and autorickshaws after verifying the fare meters installed in them.

A Division Bench of Justices T. S. Sivagnanam and S. Ananthi also directed the authorities to ensure that autorickshaws collected fares from the passengers by operating the meters and not demand exorbitant amounts.

Further, the judges directed the Madurai RTO officials to conduct strict checking of share autos for overloading and violation of the permit conditions. Overloading is a serious problem and action must be taken by the authorities in this regard.

Most of the share autos were operated as mini buses and the mini buses are operated as transport corporation buses stopping at all the bus stops, the court observed and directed the Joint Commissioner of Transport, Madurai region, to monitor and call for periodical records from the RTO officials.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by A. Jahir Hussain of Madurai. The petitioner said that the fare meters are fixed in rental taxis and auto rickshaws in compliance of the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle Rules. If there was a need to repair or adjust the fare meters, it can only be done by a government-approved licensed technician. Care and caution must be taken while certifying the calibrated meters.

But the authorities were issuing fitness certificates without insisting upon the calibration certificates The petitioner said that he had sent a representation to the authorities concerned, but no action was taken.

The court observed that calibration of fare meters in taxis and autorickshaws was important as it was likely that the passengers could be cheated and asked to pay more. Therefore, the authorities must consider the representation and take action.