Can ministers go around in any car? CPM's P Rajeev wants minister K M Shaji to brush up on rules

Former law minister and CPM leader P Rajeev on Monday said that the Motor Vehicles Department, through a 2024 High Court, was authorised to confiscate the Range Rover used by local self government minister K M Shaji. "The minister himself had openly admitted that he had violated the Motor Vehicle Rules," Rajeev said.

K M Shaji claimed on September 27 that a minister could use the official number assigned to him and the national flag on any vehicle he chooses. The minister's argument was that the government order on ministers' vehicles attaches just a serial number (13, in the case of Shaji) and not a specific registration number for ministers. "The vehicle in which a minister travels is the minister's vehicle," Shaji had told reporters.

Rajeev appeared amused. "The minister would have quickly by-hearted the existing Rules had High Court judges come across his Range Rover," Rajeev said in a Facebook post on Monday. The former minister was referring to a case where the Motor vehicles Department, on the directions of a High Court Judge, had taken into custody the official vehicle of the managing director of Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML), a public sector undertaking, for "illegally" flaunting the 'State' emblem.

In his July 2024 order, Kerala High Court Judge Anil K Narendran expressed disappointment that state emblems were used inappropriately and with impunity. "Despite various directions being issued by this Court, the use of motor vehicles in public places with unauthorised name boards, flashlights, etc. cannot be effectively prevented by the Enforcement Officers in the Motor Vehicles Department and also by the Police," the Court said, citing the KMML vehicle as an example.

The Justice continued: "Such vehicles are being parked even on the footpaths, causing obstruction to the free movement of pedestrians, including persons with disabilities, children, etc. The name boards 'Kerala State', 'Government of Kerala', 'Government of India', etc. are being exhibited in vehicles other than Government vehicles. Such boards are being exhibited even in vehicles owned by statutory bodies, societies registered under the Societies Registration Act, non-Governmental organisations, etc."

The Court wanted the KMML vehicle, carrying the state emblem and flashlight, to be taken into custody by the police.

Rajeev said that minister Shaji's argument that only serial numbers were allotted to ministers merely revealed his ignorance of law. "But ignorance of law is not an excuse to wriggle out of the punishment stipulated in law," Rajeev said.

He pointed to sub-rule 2 of Rule 92-A of Kerala Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. "The vehicles allotted to the Ministers and those similarly assigned by the Government shall bear the board 'Kerala State' (or Kerala Sarkar in Malayalam) and a serial number allotted to it, along with the registration mark of the vehicle in front and rear of the vehicle," it says.

Rajeev said that this sub-rule made it clear that state boards could be displayed only in "allotted vehicles". "The law, in other words, does not allow the state board to be used on a whim on any private vehicle. If at all the state board with a minister's official serial number has to be displayed on such a vehicle, a special government order granting such permission is mandatory," he said.

It is in this context that Rajeev called for the confiscation of the Range Rover that Shaji had used for his travel to Coorg in Karnataka.