Kerala High Court refuses to stay government’s circular on new driving test rules: Report

The court was hearing a petition filed by Kerala Motor Driving School Instructors and Workers Association and others.

MVD has issued a circular on April 4, 2024 revising the conditions for driving license test.

As per the circular, the applicant has to go through several real-life driving challenges and get a pass to get the license.

The circular has made it mandatory to conduct a road test on a busy road and conduct tests on angular parking, parallel parking, zig-zag driving and gradient testing before conducting the ‘H’ test on land. It was mandatory to take only 30 driving tests per day, 20 new and 10 from the previous failed batch.

The petitioners argued that the circular was illegal and against the Motor Vehicles Act and Rules and accused the state government of hastily trying to impose restrictions and conditions.

As per the circular, for two-wheeler driving license, only motorcycles with gear pedals above 95 cc will be allowed. For the four-wheeler driving test, electric cars or automatic cars will not be allowed.

It has also made it mandatory to have dashboard cameras and vehicle location tracking devices on light motor vehicles used for testing and these have to be installed by the owner of the driving school.

The driving instructor should record the test using a camera, and take the memory card to the motor vehicle inspector.

This data will then be transferred to the MVD system, and the owner must keep the memory card intact for the next three months.

The circular also mandates that no vehicle older than 15 years should be used for driving test.

Date of first publication: 04 May 2024, 3:37 PM IST