Rajya Sabha Clears Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill, Updated Fine List

The amendment to the act aims at hiking the traffic fines in country by a huge margin.

Published On: 02/08/19
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We had already informed you that the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill that aimed at hiking the traffic fines across the nation had been passed in the lower house of the Parliament. Now, the legislative body’s upper house has also cleared the bill and it is on its way to become the law. The amendment to the act aims at hiking the traffic fines in country by a huge margin.

This hike in fines is aimed at making the roads of the country safer. Earlier, the fines stipulated by the Motor Vehicles Act were very small and hence the incentive to break the law and get away with a rap on the knuckles was very high among the motorists of the country. Therefore, in order to make the punitive system a bit strict and incentivize the citizens to adhere to the traffic laws, the government has hiked the fines by a large margin.

A detailed list of the changes in fine in the MV Amendment Act

Section/ Offence	Old Penalty	New Penalty (Minimum)
General (177)	Rs 100	Rs 500
Rules of road regulation violation (new 177A)	Rs. 100	Rs 500
Travelling without a ticket (178)	Rs 200	Rs 500
Disobedience of orders of authorities (179)	Rs 500	Rs 2000
Unauthorized use of vehicles without a licence (180)	Rs 1000	Rs 5000
Driving without a licence (181)	Rs 500	Rs 5000
Driving without qualification (182)	Rs 500	Rs 10,000
Oversized vehicles (182B)	New	Rs 5000
Over speeding (183)	Rs 400	Rs 1000 for LMV, Rs 2000 for Medium Passenger Vehicle
Dangerous driving penalty (184)	Rs. 1,000	Up to Rs 5000
Drunken driving (185)	Rs 2000	Rs 10,000
Speeding/ Racing (189)	Rs 500	Rs 5,000
Vehicle without a permit (192A)	Up to Rs 5000	Up to Rs 10,000
Aggregators (violations of licensing conditions) (193)	New	Rs 25,000 to Rs 1,00,000
Overloading (194)	Rs 2,000, and Rs 1,000 per extra tonne	Rs 20,000, and Rs 2,000 per extra tonne
Overloading of Passengers (194A)	N.A.	Rs 1000 per extra passenger
Seat Belt (194 B)	Rs 100	Rs 1,000
Overloading of two-wheelers (194 C)	Rs 100	Rs 2,000, Disqualification of licence for 3 months
Not providing a way for emergency vehicles (194E)	New	Rs 10,000
Driving without insurance (196)	Rs 1,000	Rs 2,000
Offences by Juveniles (199)	New	Guardian/ Owner shall be deemed guilty. Rs 25,000 with 3 years imprisonment. Juvenile to be tried under JJ Act. Registration of Motor Vehicle to be cancelled.
Power of officers to impound documents (206)	N.A.	Suspension of driving licence under sections 183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 194C, 194D, 194E,
Offences committed by enforcing authorities (210B)	N.A.	Twice the penalty under the relevant section

This is a welcome move by the government of India, as the roads of India are particularly notorious for being highly unsafe. The low fines for offences lead to people sometimes breaking the law without worrying about the consequences and thus leads to lower compliance rates. In regard to this, the proposed changes should improve the situation, but enforcement will also remain a major challenge as a law can only take effect in the right sense when it is enforced in a proper and corruption free manner.