New bill seeks steep rise in fines for traffic violation
Road safety experts say that the bill brings back focus on road safety aspects unlike the existing Act which mainly deals with registration of vehicles and issuance of licences.
migrator
Chennai
This new provision was part of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019 passed in the Lok Sabha on July 23. In Rajya Sabha, the bill has been to the Standing and Select Committee. The bill sought to modify the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 and proposes bigger penalties for traffic violations; protecting people who help accident victims, and improving provision of services for vehicle buyers, among others.
To ensure road safety, the bill proposes to increase penalties to act as a deterrent against traffic violations. Stricter provisions are being proposed for offences like juvenile driving, drunken driving, driving without licence, dangerous driving, speeding, overloading etc.
The new bill has multiplied penalties on violation of rules. For instance, people caught driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs will have to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 instead of the older slab of Rs 2,000. The offender can also be put in jail for a maximum period of three months.
Under the section 194C, penalty for overloading two wheelers will be increased from Rs 100 to Rs 2,000. For offences like driving without licence and speeding or racing, violators will have to pay a fine of Rs 5,000 instead of Rs 500 which was fixed earlier.
The amendment bill proposes that guardians and owners be deemed to be guilty in cases of offences by the Juveniles and Juvenile to be tried under JJ Act. It also calls for Registration of Motor Vehicle to be cancelled.
Road safety expert N Sumana said that the MV amendment bill brings the focus on the road safety aspects unlike the existing Act which largely deals with the registration of vehicles and issuance of licences. “India accounts for 10 per cent of the road accident deaths across the world. Hence the provisions of the amendment bill are framed taking into account the International Standards on road safety. A steep hike in the penalties will act as an efficient deterrent. It will make the people drive with discipline,” she said.
The proposed bill also makes it compulsory to investigate accident spots. “In cases of accidents, investigation must be done to figure out the cause of the accident and to check if it was the driver’s fault or a faulty road design. For the first time, investigation of accident sites has been made mandatory,” Sumana said.
In a first, the Centre is set to develop a system for cashless treatment of road accident victims during the golden hour which is the first hour after a traumatic injury which has the highest likelihood of preventing death by providing medical care. The bill also gives a choice to citizens who help accident victims about whether they want to be contacted by the police for their investigation or not. “This paves way for the good Samaritans to not be harassed by the police as guidelines required for it has been formally incorporated into this bill,” said Sumana.
Obtaining a driving licence will, however, get more difficult if you don’t have adequate skills as driving tests are set to become technology driven, reducing human interface to curb corruption. Currently, licence testing is manual and undeserving people also end up getting a licence. The proposed changes in the Act gives power to the Centre to make rules for the authority that issues licences. A national register of driving licence will be created that will comprise licence data from throughout the country to make transfer of vehicles across states easier and weed out fake driving licences.
The government will also have the power to regulate taxi aggregators such as Ola and Uber. Till now, the law did not recognise cab aggregators. Adding the word ‘aggregators’ in the Act will give power to the Centre to frame guidelines for these companies and make them more compliant.
The bill also proposes to improve transport by permitting states to grant exemptions in stage carriage and contract carriage permits for promoting rural transport, public transport, last mile connectivity and for passenger convenience and road safety. It calls for the state government to specify a multiplier, not less than one and not greater than ten, to be applied to each fine under this Act.
Section |
| Old Provision / Penalty | New Proposed Provision / Minimum Penalties |
177 | General | Rs 100 | Rs 500 |
New 177A | Rules of road regulation violation | Rs 100 | Rs 500 |
178 | Travel without ticket | RS 200 | Rs 500 |
179 | Disobedience of orders of authorities | Rs 500 | Rs 2000 |
180 | Unautorized use of vehicles without licence | Rs 1000 | Rs 5000 |
181 | Driving without licence | Rs 500 | Rs 5000 |
182 | Driving despite disqualification | Rs 500 | Rs 10,000 |
182 B | Oversize vehicles | New | Rs 5000 |
183 | Over speeding | Rs 400 | Rs 1000 for LMV Rs 2000 for Medium passenger vehicle |
184 | Dangerous driving penalty | Rs 1000 | Upto Rs 5000 |
185 | Drunken driving | Rs 2000 | Rs 10,000 |
189 | Speeding / Racing | Rs 500 | Rs 5,000 |
192 A | Vehicle without permit | upto Rs 5000 | Upto Rs 10,000 |
193 | Aggregators (violations of licencing conditions) | New | Rs 25,000 to Rs 1,00,000 |
194 | Overloading | Rs 2000 and Rs 1000 per extra tonne | Rs 20,000 and Rs 2000 per extra tonne |
194 A | Overloading of passengers |
| Rs 1000 per extra passenger |
194 B | Seat belt | Rs 100 | Rs 1000 |
194 C | Overloading of two wheelers | Rs 100 | Rs 2000, Disqualification for 3 months for licence |
194 D | Helmets | Rs 100 | Rs 1000 Disqualification for 3 months for licence |
194 E | Not providing way for emergency vehicles | New | Rs 10,000 |
196 | Driving Without Insurance | RS 1000 | Rs 2000 |
199 | Offences by Juveniles | New | Guardian / owner shall be deemed to be guilty. Rs 25,000 with 3 yrs imprisonment. For Juvenile to be tried under JJ Act. Registration of Motor Vehicle to be cancelled |
206 | Power of Officers to impound documents |
| Suspension of driving licenses u/s 183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 194C, 194D,194E |
210 B | Offences committed by enforcing authorities |
| Twice the penalty under the relevant section |
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