The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday stayed the State government’s decision of banning registration of Maruti Suzuki Ltd.’s (MSL) Omni vans as emergency response service ambulance vehicles in Karnataka. It further directed the State transport authorities to register the Omni ambulance model as per the existing norms under Motor Vehicles Act.
Justice G. Narendar passed the interim order on a petition filed by MLS questioning the circulars issued by the Transport Department in May and June this year.
The company has contended that the State government banned the registration without any basis in law and on the erroneous understanding of the new norm for ambulances, called Ambulance AIS (Automotive Industry Standards) 2018 introduced by amending the Motor Vehicles (MV) Rules Act by the Union government in 2016.
The MV Rule 125F makes it clear that Ambulance AIS 2018 norm shall be enforced for manufacture of road ambulances only from April 1, 2018 but the State government has illegally decided to ban registration of Omni vans, it has been claimed in the petition.
The prevalent Homologation certificate confirms that Omni ambulance is compliant with all the existing/applicable AIS norms, and is certified to operate/ply on roads pan India without any exceptions/restrictions, the petitioner-company claimed.