The High Court yesterday stayed a government order that empowered the BRTA inspectors to issuance and renewal of professional driving licences for motor vehicle drivers in place of the Driving Competency Test Board.
Hearing a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, the court also issued a rule upon the government to explain in two weeks why the circular issued by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority on last December 31 to this effect should not be declared illegal.
The circular said the vehicle inspectors will hold examinations and tests for giving and renewing driving licenses in place of the DCTB, another state-run body.
Following this HC order, now the DCTB will hold tests and examinations for driving licences as it did earlier, petitioner's lawyer Manzill Murshid told The Daily Star.
The organisation submitted the petition recently to the HC saying that the BRTA has issued the circular bypassing the authority of DCTB, which is empowered to issue and renew the driving licences as per the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1983.
Secretaries to the ministries of home, and communications, chairman, director and deputy director (engineering) and inspector of vehicles of BRTA, deputy inspector general of police (highway) and joint commissioner (traffic) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police have been made respondents to the rule.