{"id":2346,"date":"2026-05-14T14:29:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/?p=2346"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:59:20","slug":"supreme-court-makes-tracking-devices-panic-buttons-mandatory-in-public-service-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/?p=2346","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Makes Tracking Devices & Panic Buttons Mandatory in Public Service Vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a major step toward improving passenger safety across India, the Supreme Court has directed all States and Union Territories to ensure that no public service vehicle receives a fitness certificate or permit without verified installation of Vehicle Location Tracking Devices (VLTDs) and emergency panic buttons. The order was passed by a Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan while hearing the case S Rajaseekaran v. Union of India<\/em>, related to reducing road accident fatalities nationwide.<\/p>\n

The Court expressed serious concern over the poor implementation of Rule 125H of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. According to the Bench, less than 1% of transport vehicles currently have the mandated tracking systems installed, despite the legal requirement being in force for years. Calling the situation \u201cdisturbing,\u201d the judges highlighted that these devices are essential for the safety of women, children, senior citizens, and daily commuters.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court ordered that no vehicle should be granted a fitness certificate under Section 56 or a permit under Section 66 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 unless the tracking devices and panic buttons are properly installed, verified, and reflected in the Vahan database. States and UTs have also been directed to retrofit older public service vehicles registered up to December 2018 with these safety systems.<\/p>\n

The Bench further stressed the importance of real-time monitoring and road discipline. Justice Pardiwala observed that lack of lane driving is one of the biggest reasons for road accidents in India and urged the government to focus more on traffic discipline and compliance. The Court also asked the Union government to discuss with vehicle manufacturers the possibility of providing pre-fitted tracking devices in new vehicles to ensure better implementation and passenger security nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a major step toward improving passenger safety across India, the Supreme Court has directed all States and Union Territories to ensure that no public service vehicle receives a fitness certificate or permit without verified installation of Vehicle Location Tracking Devices (VLTDs) and emergency panic buttons. The order was passed by a Bench of Justices …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[803,790,796,795,791,786,794,792,785,801,789,799,784,800,793,802,797,798,787,788],"class_list":["post-2346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","tag-breaking-news-india","tag-emergency-buttons","tag-fitness-certificate-rules","tag-india-transport-news","tag-motor-vehicles-act","tag-panic-buttons","tag-passenger-security","tag-public-service-vehicles","tag-public-transport-safety","tag-road-accident-prevention","tag-road-safety-india","tag-speed-governors","tag-supreme-court","tag-supreme-court-india","tag-traffic-safety","tag-transport-department-india","tag-transport-permit","tag-vahan-database","tag-vehicle-tracking-devices","tag-vltd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2348,"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346\/revisions\/2348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dw24news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}