Should drivers who keep breaking the rules keep their licences? Hearing its suo motu Road Safety Case, the Kerala High Court floated permanent licence cancellation or impounding of vehicles for repeat offenders over speeding buses and cars, and pressed for an integrated road safety monitoring platform.
Kochi: Reckless driving by bus drivers, speeding cars and a rising number of road accidents drew serious concern from the Kerala High Court on Tuesday (November 3), which asked the authorities to come up with concrete measures to prevent further loss of life [Suo Motu v. The Chief Secretary and Ors. and connected cases].
The suo motu proceedings on road safety in Kerala were heard by a Division Bench of Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V and Justice K.V. Jayakumar. The remarks reported below were made orally during the hearing.
Timetables, speeding and the Commissioner’s answers
Transport Commissioner Nagaraj Chakilam was asked about the existing bus timetable system and whether unrealistic schedules push drivers to speed. He submitted that a digital platform called Kerala Bus has been developed to integrate bus timings with GPS-based location data, and that bus schedules would be revised this month.
Despite repeated accidents, the Bench was not satisfied that enough was being done to curb speeding. It asked the Commissioner to explain how over-speeding happens in Ernakulam and what had been done to reduce deaths, and called for immediate identification of high-end cars driven at breakneck speed at night, saying the authorities should be able to inform the appropriate authority and the vehicle owner of the violation within two days.
Licences and vehicles on the line
Permanent cancellation of driving licences or impounding of offending vehicles was suggested by the Bench as a way to curb accidents caused by repeat violations.
“If it is done repeatedly, your licence will go, or vehicle. Some action will have to be taken. Everything is being taken lightly and the corrective measures are not being taken.”
“We can’t just permit all the children, women to fall prey to the buses and go underneath the tyres and die. Why would we want to do that? Come up with something.”
Guidelines that already exist on paper but are not implemented drew criticism from Justice Vijayaraghavan as well.
“We went through the PWD manual, we went through the MoRTH guidelines, the IRC, everything is there, but nothing, you know, on the ground, nothing is there.”
A monitoring platform and the next hearing
Going through the affidavits filed by the authorities, the Court observed that several issues flagged in its previous order remained unaddressed. It stressed the need for an Integrated Road Safety Monitoring platform and asked Additional Advocate General Mohammed Shah P.A. to take the lead in initiating the process. The Director General of Police was directed to nominate an officer familiar with road safety issues to join the steering committee proposed for developing the platform.
Three weeks from now the matter will be heard again. No final directions on penalties have been issued, and the suggestions on licence cancellation and impounding remain observations at this stage.
Why the hearing matters
Rules, manuals and national guidelines exist, but enforcement on the ground lags, and that familiar gap in road safety governance is what this suo motu case reflects. By pressing the State on timetables that may reward speeding, on repeat offenders and on night-time speeding by high-end cars, the Bench is moving the inquiry from paper compliance to measurable enforcement.
The concrete step from this hearing is the direction to build an integrated monitoring platform, with a police nominee on the steering committee. Whether the Court eventually turns its suggestions on licence cancellation and impounding into binding directions will depend on what the authorities place on record at the next hearing.
Case Title: Suo Motu v. The Chief Secretary and Ors. and connected cases
Bench: Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V and Justice K.V. Jayakumar, Kerala High Court
Date of Hearing: November 3, 2026
Appearances: Additional Advocate General Mohammed Shah P.A. for the State; Transport Commissioner Nagaraj Chakilam present
