Bombay HC wants more head constables

The Bombay high court on Monday asked the traffic police to consider increasing the number of head constables in the city, so as to deploy one at every traffic signal.

The suggestion came after the court was informed that constables were prohibited from levying fines on errant motorists.

 A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice Ranjit More was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Bombay Bar Association seeking strict action against violators of traffic rules.

 Additional government pleader Jasbir Saluja informed the court that the traffic department’s petition to allow constables to impose fines had been rejected by the government.
 
Saluja said that the traffic department at present has 1630 constables and 309 head constables.
 
To this, the chief justice responded, “How do you expect 309 head constables to cover all the signals in the city? There has to be at least one head constable at each traffic signal. In fact, the number of head constables has to be twice the number of signals.”