ABDUL KHADER Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners businessmen with commercial premises on the Main Road, Ponnani, seek a writ or appropriate direction, to restrain the respondents from implementing 'one way traffic' regulation on the road from Edappal to Poduponnani. According to petitioners, if one way traffic is introduced, vehicles will have to travel an additional distance to reach their destination, as the portion covered by the restriction is long. S.18 of the Kerala Police Act is violated, submits petitioners.

(2.) In answer, respondents submit that the road is very narrow, and cannot be widened, due to the presence of innumerable buildings and the lie of the land. The width of the road at a particular junction is only 3.70 meters, and the approximate width of a heavy vehicle is 1.80 meters. Thus, if vehicles are to cross or if one vehicle is parked, the entire traffic will come to stand still leading to chaos, on a busy road submits, Government Pleader. Besides, it is said that a large number of lorries and buses ply along this road and that traffic jams had become a regular feature.

(3.) Under S.18 of the Kerala Police Act, the District Magistrate has "powers to make rules for regulation of traffic and for Preservation of order in public places" (emphasis supplied).