Kerala High Court seeks response from Centre, State on plea for Aadhaar authentication to prevent fraud in ownership transfer of vehicles

A petitioner has approached the Kerala High Court seeking directions to the State Transport Commissioner and Central government to enable Aadhaar authentication for verifying ownership and preventing fraud while transferring vehicle ownership [Rosna Vareed VT v Sate of Kerala & Anr.]..Justice Murali Purushothaman on Thursday sought the response of the Centre, State Transport Commissioner, Regional Transport Officer, and the husband of the petitioner.“It is a dangerous situation,” Justice Purushothaman orally remarked while issuing notice to the respondent Central and State authorities.The plea was filed by a woman aggrieved by her husband's alleged act of transferring ownership of her vehicle to his name without her consent or knowledge and by forging her signature.She said that her husband forged her signature onto Forms 29 and 30, required for the ownership transfer of motor vehicles as per the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 and completed the ownership transfer.She also stated in her petition that their marital relationship was not on good terms and they had been in disagreement for several months.While she was sorting out the child’s custody she found that the ownership of the vehicle was changed, petitioner added.“From the aforesaid website (Parivahan), it came to the knowledge of the petitioner that the 5th respondent (husband) filed an application on 13.01.2023 for changing the ownership of the vehicle and the same has been approved on 25.01.2023.” the plea said.The plea further said that even though the vehicle was blacklisted by the Regional Transport Officer on receiving the petitioner’s representation against the husband, no action has been taken since..The petitioner submitted that she observed several flaws in the present ownership transfer mechanism adopted by the State Transport Commissioner and the Centre such as- On the Parivahan website, anyone who has a copy of the certificate of registration of a vehicle without hypothecation (as in the case of the petitioner), can transfer the ownership of a vehicle from the original owner’s name to his/her name;- Only OTP authentication is required and linked phone number can be changed without the owner’s knowledge; and- There is no mechanism adopted to ensure genuineness of the signatures in Form 29 and 30..She suggested in her plea that these issues can be resolved if Aadhaar authentication is mandated by the State Transport Commissioner, Regional Transport Officer and Centre for any modifications/corrections relating to the certificate of registration.Therefore, the petitioner sought a direction to the concerned authorities to enable Aadhaar authentication to ensure a foolproof mechanism for transferring ownership of vehicles.She also sought a direction to the Regional Transport Officer to cancel the certificate of registration issued in favor of her husband..The petitioner was represented by advocates Raghul Sudheesh, Lakshmi J, Elizabeth Mathew, Bini Das and Dharsana A.