Hefty penalties proposed for traffic violations

Proposed Amendments in Various Penalties under Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill – 2016

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 oflicencingconditions)	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

 

 

In a bid to making roads safe, the government has cleared the legislation for harsh penalties for violations, going up to 20 times the present stipulation. The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill, 2016, on Wednesday.

In the hit-and-run cases, the compensation has been proposed to be hiked from the current Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh. Drunken driving will attract a fine up to Rs 10,000 instead of the present Rs 2,000. Over-speeding penalties have been raised from Rs 1,000 to Rs 4,000. Driving without licence will not cost Rs 5,000 instead of Rs 500. The fine for driving despite disqualification has been increased from Rs 500 to Rs 10,000.

An official press release explained the rationale for and the objective of the Bill. “Every year 5 lakh road accidents are reported in the country in which 1.5 lakh people lose their lives. Government is committed to reduce the accidents and fatalities by 50 per cent in five years.”

To address the issue of road safety, a draft Road Transport & Safety Bill was prepared soon after NDA Government came to power. However, most of the states have expressed reservations.

To address the issue of road safety and to improve the facilitation of the citizens while dealing with transport departments, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari constituted a Group of Transport Ministers (GoM) of the States.  The GoM, headed by Transport Minister of Rajasthan Yoonus Khan, held three meetings. A total of 18 Transport Ministers from different political parties participated in these meetings and they have submitted three interim reports.

The GoM recommended that to address the pressing issue of road safety and improving transport scenario, the government should immediately bring amendments to the present Motor Vehicle Act. On the basis of recommendations of the GoM and other pressing requirements, MoRTH introduced the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill, 2016, for consideration of the Cabinet which cleared it.