The Orissa high court on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the state transport authorities to auction different categories of seized vehicles lying unclaimed in police stations, overcrowding the premises.
The two-judge bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice M S Raman issued the direction after finding certain suggestions made by the state government in an affidavit “to be reasonable”. The suggestions were given while citing problems faced by the police in disposal of the old vehicles lying in different police stations.
The bench endorsed constituting auction committees at the district levels with the superintendent of police, one deputy superintendent of police and regional transport officer as members. The sole function of the auction committee will be to expedite disposal of vehicles seized by police and lying in abandoned and unclaimed condition, the bench specified in the order.
The HC was taking stock of the progress in disposal of all kinds of seized vehicles, including two wheelers, three wheelers and four wheelers lying dumped outside the various police stations as part of adjudication of a PIL. However, the HC expressed displeasure over the statistics provided in the affidavit regarding the progress in disposal of seized vehicles that are overcrowding police stations across the state.
“It is unfortunate that in the affidavit dated November 22, 2022 filed today the latest statistics have not been set out. What has been set out is statistics as of May 1, 2022 which was already taken note of by the court in its previous order on September 19, 2022,” the bench observed.
“The state government will positively file on or before December 12 another affidavit giving an updated position as on November 30,” the bench further specified in the order. The affidavit said there were 3,146 unclaimed vehicles in the police stations. Of them, 190 were disposed of and the remaining 2,956 vehicles are still awaiting disposal.
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