New Delhi, April 6
The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to frame guidelines within a
week to deal with the problem of dealers selling tractors across the
country without registration and insurance, thereby denying farmers
ownership of their vehicles.
A Bench comprising Justices SB Sinha and MK Sharma issued the direction on a PIL filed by the Federation of Farmers Association, complaining that tractor dealers were selling these vehicles to farmers on the false promises of getting bank loans and government subsidies.
“However, they (dealers) are taking care to see that proper authorisation about the ownership of the tractors and the documents are not given to farmers. Many farmers who have fallen prey to this duplicity are confronted with legal problems as they do not possess legal documents of the payment and ownership,” according to the PIL.
Further, farmers involved in accidents were confronted with criminal cases in the absence of ownership documents and driving licence.
Appearing for the petitioners, counsel Vimla Sinha said a number of states had filed their responses to the problem of dealers violating the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, but the Centre was yet to come out with its guidelines.
