The Punjab and Haryana High Court, satisfied with the state government’s action, disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) complaining of the long delays in issuing these documents. The government informed the court that the massive backlog that had arisen earlier this year has now been completely cleared. During the hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry, the Punjab government presented a detailed status report.
The report stated that the crisis was initially created by the sudden withdrawal of an authorized vendor, leaving 4.34 lakh RC and DLs pending. The department immediately resumed in-house printing and later brought the system back on track by outsourcing the work to two government vendors. According to the report, printing of all pending cards has been completed. As of October 31st, 427,824 documents had been sent to vehicle owners, while the remaining 6,176 cards were in the final stages of dispatch. They were assured that these would be delivered to vehicle owners within 15 days.
During the hearing, the bench asked if the petitioner had received his documents. The petitioner stated that the RC had been sent immediately after the first hearing. Given this, the court concluded that the issue raised in the petition no longer existed. Disposing of the petition, the High Court directed the Punjab Transport Commissioner to send all 6,176 remaining documents within the stipulated timeframe. This public interest litigation was filed in April by Mohali resident Neha Sharma, who had approached the court over the long-pending RC.
