The long arm !! of law on illegal immigrants and Registering a vehicle

Those Nations which have stringent laws are able to maintain peace and flourish.  A welfare Government needs to care for its people by  raising their standards of living and by providing them better infrastructure and providing the basic necessities. A Nation’s basic duty is to take care of its citizen.

But in some places there are  immigrants who are not political refugees or asylum seekers but those who had sneaked into the country illegally and create turbulence in many ways.  Illegal immigration is entry of people without formal permission.  Foreigners can enter another country only in permitted zones possessing valid papers.

India has long land borders and many places they are porous.  It is not possible to fence and build walls everywhere.   Those who enter from outside do incalculable harm. They pose serious threat to the security of the Country and contribute to crimes including petty thefts.  Indian Govt. officials including PM have gone on record of the infiltration of terrorists from neighbouring countries.  This is not restricted to Pak borders but also to Nepal, Burmese and Bangla borders as well.  Then there is the tale of overstay of people – remember the news item that thousands of people who were allowed to enter at the time of Test match between India against Pakistan at Jaipur did not return back. 

In many countries including US, illegal entry is a felony subject to fine and imprisonment.  The law has iron hands there.  Violators when caught [most of the times they would be] are punished severely.    Here the popular joke is that when you cross the border and establish a settlement inside – you can elect a representative who will take care of all your needs with Govt money, you will get a ration card, free television and everything else free.  The infiltrators then organise themselves working against the interests of the Nation.  What a sad story..

On a different note, there is Motor Vehicles Act 1988 which is a legislation regulating the vehicles on road.  Sec 39 of the Act speaks of Registration wherein it is stated that “ No person shall drive any motor vehicle and no owner of a motor vehicle shall cause or permit the vehicle to be driven in any public place or in any other place unless the vehicle is registered in accordance with this Chapter and the certificate of registration of the vehicle has not been suspended or cancelled and the vehicle carries a registration mark displayed in the prescribed manner”. 

Then there is the Central Motor Vehicle Rules which have the rules and procedures interpreted.  Sec 50 states of the Form and manner of display of Registration marks on the motor vehicles - the registration marks are to be displayed both at the front and at the rear clearly and legibly in the form.. and the dimensions are specified in Sec 51 which states of the spacing between different letters and numerals and letters and edge of the plain surface as also their dimensions of height, thickness and space between.  On road you may find many vehicles (their owners] violating these rules and having fancy number plates which are illegible and hard to read.

More importantly, the Registration is to be done in the name of persons after ascertaining their veracity and checking their proof of residence.  A check at the Regional Traffic Authorities might reveal that there could be many vehicles registered from a single address – based on bogus records.  Many a times, upon a follow-up trail in criminal cases, it is revealed that vehicles involved and caught were either having a bogus Name plate or Regn. No or had false particulars of its registration, owner and address. Who is to be blames for this is too well known !  how much of harm it causes to the polity is not measured and does not come to light unless it affects some high profile persons of the society.  For the commoner, the law takes its own time and the  politically powerful are too distant to be caught.

Elsewhere in Newyork, there are reports of a man arrested for insuring 18 vehicles.  The crime was that he was falsifying business records and registering the vehicles in his own name trying to assist individuals who were unable to obtain driving licenses as they were not citizens or documented immigrants.   This came to light by an action by the Dept of Motor Vehicles and Investigators from the Insurance Fraud Bureau which found that the same person had registered and insured more vehicles in the past few years also and had also made some claims.  The investigations revealed that the person had not actually profitted from such transactions as he had not charged huge amounts but had only collected the same amounts as would have been paid for registration and insurance.

He was charged with first degree count of falsifying business records and offering false instrument for file and could be sentenced upto five years in prison, when convicted. 

There are many such transactions which would go unnoticed here – but generally, persons stash their wealth by putting them in benami names and in different addresses and why would one put all of them in one name with a single address is beyond comprehension.

Regards – S. Sampathkumar.