Cuttack, July 1: Orissa High Court has ruled that police cannot seize a vehicle or impose penalty and immediately register a case against the driver if he or she cannot furnish an original driving licence at that time.

"If a driver produces an attested true copy of the driving licence by a gazetted officer on demand by the police officer in uniform and undertakes in writing to produce the original driving licence within a stipulated period, submission of prosecution report immediately against the driver without giving him an opportunity to produce the same and seizing the vehicle or imposing penalty instantly would not be proper and justified," the court observed.

"If the driver fails to produce the original driving licence for verification within the stipulated time as allowed by the demanding officer as per the undertaking given by the driver, action can be taken against him in accordance with law," the court clarified in its ruling.

The court gave the ruling on June 28 while giving verdict on a petition filed by one Gobardhan Sethi 15 years ago.

Sethi moved the high court in 2003 after Sonepur police had registered a case against him and submitted a prosecution report the same day after he was caught for a traffic rule violation and not possessing the original driving licence on June 28, 2002. Consequently, a case has since been pending against him in the Court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Sonepur.

While quashing the prosecution's report submitted in the case, the high court said a person driving a motor vehicle in a public place might not possess the original driving licence all the time for various reasons. Therefore, the rule provides for grant of time to the concerned party to produce the driving licence within 15 days.

"Submission of a prosecution report on the very day of detection of the alleged offences is illegal," the single-judge bench of Justice S.K. Sahoo observed in the June 28 order, a full text of which was made available today.

However, Justice Sahoo said: "The plea of forgetfulness of having the original driving licence or its attested true copy by a gazetted officer with him at the time of demand by an authorised police officer in uniform cannot be an excuse. Before sitting on the driver's seat of a motor vehicle and driving it in any public place, one should be sure that he possesses a valid driving licence."

"A valid driving licence ensures that the driver is trained to drive the vehicle in a public place which safeguards the fundamental right of the commuters guaranteed under the Constitution of India," Justice Sahoo said.