Photographs and videos of illegal vehicle modifications, engine and brake tampering included, must go into every accident vehicle report on the e-DAR portal, the Kerala High Court has directed.
Kochi: The Kerala High Court has told the State Transport Commissioner to make sure that inspecting officers upload vehicle modification details, with photographs and videos, of every vehicle involved in an accident to the e-DAR (electronic Detailed Accident Report) portal. The uploads must cover unauthorised alterations to engine power and to the manufacturer’s braking system. The directions came in a suo motu writ petition on road safety and illegal vehicle modifications, whose respondents include the Union of India, the State of Kerala, the Transport Commissioner and the State Police Chief [Suo Motu v. Union of India and Others].
The order of October 9, 2026 was passed by a Division Bench of Justice Anil K. Narendran and Justice Muralee Krishna S. The Bench also added the National Informatics Centre (NIC) as a respondent on its own motion, to deal with a technical glitch in the portal.
The operative directions
On the Commissioner’s statement, the Bench directed:
“we deem it appropriate to direct the 4th respondent, through the concerned Deputy Transport Commissioners, to ensure that vehicle modification details with photographs and videos of vehicles involved in accidents are uploaded through e-DAR portal (www.irad.parivahan.gov.in), by the concerned inspecting officers, including any violation of the safety standards, which increased the risk or seriousness of bodily injury to a person hit by the bodywork or brushing against it in the event of a collision, attracting punishment under Sub-section (4) of Section 182A of the Motor Vehicles Act.”
The Court then turned to Rule 96 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, under which a manufacturer’s braking system must stop a vehicle within prescribed distances, and added:
“Therefore, in the case of vehicles involved in accidents, the vehicle modification details uploaded on e-DAR portal shall include any unauthorised alterations made to increase the engine horse power and performance as well as modifications in the breaking system provided by the manufacturer.”
The State Police Chief was also directed to take steps to ensure that the Police strictly comply with its orders “in letter and spirit, to ensure the safety of road users, including pedestrians.”
What the Commissioner told the Court
The directions rest on a statement dated September 28, 2026 from the Transport Commissioner. It said that the e-DAR portal (www.irad.parivahan.gov.in) has fields for recording vehicle modification details and for uploading photographs and videos of vehicles involved in accidents, and that the Motor Vehicles Department, the Police and the Public Works Department can all access it. Yet some inspecting officers were, in the Commissioner’s words, “bypassing the process of uploading photographs on e-DAR.”
By a letter dated September 17, 2026, the Commissioner had instructed all Deputy Transport Commissioners, Regional Transport Officers, Enforcement RTOs and Joint RTOs to upload colour photographs of unauthorised alterations found during inspection of accident vehicles. The Commissioner also pointed to a “technical glitch”: photographs uploaded on e-DAR can be viewed and downloaded online, but they do not show up on the printed hard copy of the report. NIC was asked to fix this, and also to provide a photo-upload facility on the VAHAN portal for Regional and Sub-Regional Transport Offices.
The Senior Panel Counsel for the Union Government asked for NIC to be impleaded so that instructions could be taken. The Court made the Deputy Director General (Head of Group), NIC, New Delhi, the additional ninth respondent and gave time for instructions on the glitch.
Projections that hurt pedestrians
The order discusses the Automotive Industry Standards on external projections, AIS-120 for M1 passenger vehicles and AIS-147. The Bench noted that these standards protect not only vehicle occupants but other road users too, by reducing the risk or seriousness of bodily injury to a person hit by the bodywork or brushing against it in a collision. Modifications that defeat these standards now expressly fall within what officers must record after an accident.
How the case grew, from strobe lights to flame kits
The suo motu proceedings, registered as W.P.(C) No. 25158 of 2024, have produced a series of orders, among them a detailed order of November 21, 2025 and orders of July 14, August 18 and August 21, 2026. In those orders the Bench watched YouTube videos posted by vloggers in open court and flagged red-blue strobe lights, tri-colour fog lamps, auxiliary lights mounted above headlights and high-intensity halogen driving lights that can dazzle oncoming drivers and pedestrians. It also flagged retro-reflectors replaced with after-market multi-function lamps, wheel spacers and wide tyres that push wheels beyond the body, and after-market exhausts with “flame-kits” fed by petrol stored in the luggage compartment.
Relying on its November 2025 order and the Supreme Court’s order of October 7, 2025 in S. Rajaseekaran v. Union of India, the Court had earlier held that such high-intensity lights cannot be permitted. It also directed that, on top of penalties under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, owners must be fined Rs 5,000 for each unauthorised alteration, such as multi-coloured LED lights, neon lights, laser lights, flashlights, strobe lights and flashing name boards fitted on the exterior, driver cabin or passenger compartment.
The fine is levied under Section 182A(4) of the Act read with S.R.O. No. 788/2019. In its August 21 order, the Bench noted that the Enforcement Wing of the Motor Vehicles Department and the Police were not acting against vehicles with wheels projecting beyond the body.
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The matter, heard together with W.P.(C) No. 25129 of 2024, will next be taken up on October 28, 2026 at 2.00 p.m.
Why a photograph in the file matters
Accident inspection reports are central evidence in prosecutions under the Motor Vehicles Act and in compensation claims before Motor Accident Claims Tribunals. By requiring photographs and videos of illegal modifications, including tampering with engines and brakes, to be uploaded on a national portal shared by the Motor Vehicles Department, Police and Public Works Department, the Court is making sure the part such modifications played in a crash is recorded and cannot later be lost or disputed. Bringing NIC into the case is also meant to close the gap that keeps photographs off printed reports.
Case Title: Suo Motu v. Union of India and Others
Case No.: W.P.(C) No. 25158 of 2024, with W.P.(C) No. 25129 of 2024
Bench: Justice Anil K. Narendran and Justice Muralee Krishna S.
Date: October 9, 2026
Appearances: Senior Panel Counsel R.V. Sreejith, for the Union of India; Special Government Pleader, for the State respondents; Advocate K. Rakesh, for additional respondent 6; Advocate Deepu Thankan and others, for KSRTC; Advocate Kevin James and others, for additional respondent 8