LMV licence holders entitled to drive transport vehicles under 7,500 kg unladen weight: SC

A person holding a light motor vehicles (LMV) driving licence is entitled to drive a “transport vehicle of light motor vehicle class” having an unladen weight not exceeding 7,500 kg, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

“A driver holding a license for LMV class, under Section 10(2)(d) for vehicles with a gross vehicle weight under 7,500 kg, is permitted to operate a ‘transport vehicle’ without needing additional authorisation under Section 10(2)(e) of the MV (Motor Vehicles) Act specifically for the ‘transport vehicle’ class,” a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said while deciding a batch of 78 petitions.

“For licensing purposes, LMVs and transport vehicles are not entirely separate classes. An overlap exists between the two. The special eligibility requirements will, however, continue to apply for, inter alia, e-carts, e-rickshaws, and vehicles carrying hazardous goods,” said the Bench – which also included Justice Hrishikesh Roy, Justice PS Narasimha, Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Manoj Misra.

No empirical data was adduced before it to show that LMV license holders driving transport vehicles were a significant cause of road accidents, the Bench noted.

“The additional eligibility criteria specified in the MV Act and MV Rules generally for driving ‘transport vehicles’ would apply only to those intending to operate vehicles with gross vehicle weight exceeding 7,500 kg, ie, ‘medium goods vehicle’, ‘medium passenger vehicle’, ‘heavy goods vehicle’ and ‘heavy passenger vehicle’,” it clarified.

The MV Act provides for different regimes for the granting of driving licences for different categories of vehicles. After examining the scheme of the Act, the top court said, “The second part of Section 3(1), which emphasizes the necessity of a specific requirement to drive a ‘transport vehicle,’ does not supersede the definition of LMV provided in Section 2(21) of the MV Act.”

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Justice Roy said, “Our present interpretation on how the licensing regime is to operate for drivers under the statutory scheme is unlikely to compromise the road safety concerns. This will also effectively address the livelihood issues for drivers operating transport vehicles (who clock maximum hours behind the wheels), in legally operating “transport vehicles” (below 7,500 kg), with their LMV driving licensc.”

The Bench had on August 21 reserved its verdict on petitions raising this legal question that has led to numerous disputes over payment of claims by insurance companies in accidents involving transport vehicles being driven by those possessing licences to drive LMVs.

Insurance firms alleged that the Motor Accident Claims Tribunals (MACTs) and courts have been passing orders requiring them to pay insurance claims, disregarding their objections with regard to the LMV driving licence as they adopted a pro-insured approach.

The issue was referred to the larger Bench on March 8, 2022 by a three-judge Bench headed by Justice UU Lalit (since retired).

The question arose from the apex court's 2017 verdict in the case of Mukund Dewangan versus Oriental Insurance Company Limited in which a three-judge Bench had held that transport vehicles, the gross weight of which does not exceed 7,500 kg, are not excluded from the definition of an LMV. The matter was referred to the larger Bench as the top court felt that certain provisions of the law were not noticed by it while delivering the Mukund Dewangan judgment. On Wednesday, the Bench upheld its decision in the Mukund Dewangan verdict.