RAGHUBIR SINGH Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ENVIRONMENTAL compulsions of the modern age are increasingly motivating governmental activities adding an edge to State's regulatory functions. Necessarily, matching measures have to be, and are, evolved to promote public good. Rapid strides in technological and scientific advancement with the growth of commerce and industry following in its wake carry inevitably their impress on regulatory laws. Measures conferring powers on public officials enabling them to discharge public duties under such laws pose jural problem of great variety and complexity. Balancing of conflicting individual interests apart, the dominant social and/or economic purposes underlying such measures obligate Courts in a constitutionally mandated welfare State like ours to extend their forensic insight beyond the pale of fact-situation of the lis. The interpretation of Section 31 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1939 (shortly, the Act) lies at the heart of the lis in the instant case raising an important question on which, unfortunately, little guidance from reported decisions is available. We pose and propose to answer the question - Can the registering authority discharging its statutory duty thereunder be allowed to act like a robot or automaton?

(2.) FACTUAL MATRIX

(3.) A CLOSE PERSPECTIVE