Section 45 in The West Bengal Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989
45. Duties and conduct of conductors of stage carriage.
- The conductor of a stage carriage -(a)shall, as far as may be reasonably possible, having regard to his duties, be responsible for the due observance of the provisions of the Act and of these rules;(b)shall not smoke while on duty;(c)shall behave in a civil and orderly manner to passengers and intending passengers;(d)shall be cleanly dressed and shall wear khaki shirt or khaki bush shirt and khaki trousers of police pattern of khaki colour;(e)shall maintain the vehicle in a clean and sanitary condition;(f)shall not solicit customers save in a civil and quite manner;(g)shall not interfere with persons boarding or preparing to board any other vehicle;(h)shall not allow any person to be carried in any stage carriage in excess of the seating capacity specified in the certificate of registration of the vehicle and any additional number of passengers permitted under the terms of the permit to be carried standing in the vehicle;(i)shall not, save for good and sufficient reason, refuse to carry any person tendering the legal fare;(j)shall not, allow any passenger to be carried in any stage carriage without payment of the legal fare :Provided that this clause shall not apply to any Government servants on duty, as the State Government may, from time to time by notification in the Official Gazette, specify in this behalf;Explanation.- Where the legal fare is less than one rupee, a demand by such person for change in excess of that sum shall be a good and sufficient reason for refusing to carry such person for the purposes of this sub-rule;(k)shall, where goods are carried on a vehicle in addition to passenger, take all reasonable precautions to ensure that passengers are not endangered or unduly inconvenienced by reason of the loads of goods;(l)shall not, save for good and sufficient reason, require any person who has paid the legal fare to alight from the vehicle before the conclusion of his journey;(m)shall not, loiter or unduly delay upon any journey but shall proceed to his destination, as nearly as may be, in accordance with the timetable, with all reasonable dispatch;(n)shall, in the event of the vehicle being unable to proceed to its destination on account of mechanical breakdown or other cause beyond the control of the driver or conductor, arrange to convey the passengers to their destination in some other similar vehicle or, if unable to so arrange within a period of half an hour after the failure of the vehicle, shall, on demand, refund to each passenger a proper proportion of the fare relating to the completion of the journey for which the passenger had paid the fare;(o)shall not cause or allow anything to be placed in the vehicle in such a manner as to obstruct the entry or exit of passengers;(p)shall issue a ticket immediately on payment of the legal fare or freight by the passenger except where arrangements outside the vehicle for the issue of tickets in advance to the intending passengers on payment of the legal fare has been made;(q)shall, at the conclusion of any journey make reasonable search in the vehicle for anything left by any passenger and shall take into his custody anything so found by him or any other person in such vehicle and as soon as may be, make over the same to a police officer at the nearest police-station within twenty-four hours or to such authority as prescribed under proviso to rule 26 of these rules;(r)shall not cause or allow to enter into or to be placed or carried in the vehicle any person whom he knows or has reason to believe to be suffering from an infectious or contagious disease, or the corpse, of any person whom he knows or has reason to believe to have suffered from any such disease;(s)may, notwithstanding anything contained in clause (r), upon application in writing by a registered medical practitioner, allow a person, suffering from an infectious or a contagious disease to be carried in a stage carriage provided that no other person save a person or persons in attendance on the sick person shall be carried in the vehicle at the same time;(t)shall be responsible, when a person suffering from an infectious or contagious disease, or the corpse of any such person has been carried in a stage carriage, for reporting the fact to a medical officer of health and to the owner of the vehicle and neither the owner nor the driver nor the conductor shall cause or allow any person to use the vehicle until the driver and conductor and the vehicle have been disinfected in such manner as the said medical officer, may specify and a certificate to that effect has been obtained from the said medical officer;(u)shall assist the driver and be on the look out if other motor vehicles are approaching from behind and effectively signal their approach to the driver;(v)shall take reasonable precautions to prevent luggage being miscarried or lost on the way;(w)shall not, while on duty, be under the influence of drink or of a drug to an extent rendering him incapable of discharging his duties efficiently:(x)shall, on demand by any passenger, produce the complaint book to be maintained under rule 175 hereinafter for recording such remarks as the passenger may desire to make therein;(y)shall not, while he is on duty, permit the vehicle to be used for illegal or immoral purpose;(z)shall not permit any petrol or diesel to be poured into the fuel tank while the engine is in operation;(aa)shall, whenever the stage carriage approaches an unguarded railway level crossing, stop the carriage and after alighting there-from and ensuring that no train is approaching from either direction, cause the vehicle to follow him till the other side of the level crossing is reached;(bb)shall, in case of an accident to the vehicle, shall make all reasonable efforts to help the injured persons and to inform the nearest police-station immediately;(cc)shall help the infant, disabled, pregnant ladies, old and aged passengers and the ladies with child in arm, to board and alight from the vehicle;(dd)shall, when the driver is taking the vehicle in reverse direction, get down from the vehicle and be on the look out for other motor vehicles or any other obstacle at the back of the vehicle and effectively give signal to the driver;(ee)shall not allow any explosives or dangerous or inflammable substances to be carried in the vehicle either personally luggaged or in the cargo.
