The new motor vehicle act has come into force from 1st September after the Ministry of Road Transport announced and notified about the implementation of provisions of the new Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019 previous week.
the and it has been in top headlines already for imposing the people with unreasonably high penalties. In fact, in some events that happened in Gurugram and Delhi, people have been fined with penalties as high as Rs. 23000/, Rs. 47000/- & Rs. 59000/- where the drivers either are not carrying the necessary documents or are found drunk driving.
One person even said that he has been charged with a penalty of Rs. 23000/- while he was driving his scooter which merely valued Rs. 15000/-. Well, you can say, it happens only in India. Our government suddenly felt an urge to curate some rules which would change the face of Indian traffic in one night. The penalties for the defaults have been increased by 5 to 10 times in almost every case and the fact 20 times in one case.
E.g. the penalty for over-speeding or racing on streets was Rs. 500 which has now been increased to Rs. 5,000/-. Further, as per section 182 of the new motor vehicle act, if any person is found driving without qualification then he or she would be penalized with Rs. 10,000/- penalty, 20 times higher than Rs. 500/- which was a penalty for the same default as per old rules.
The news has started to come from across the country about the people frustrated with the new motor vehicle act. However, there are still 2 states in the country where people need not worry about extravagant penalties. The state of Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.
Being ruled by the opposition party Congress, both of the state governments have not yet accepted the rules imposed by the union government and has asked to implement the new provisions after proper study of the act.
Renowned congress party leader & Madhya Pradesh’s Chief Minister Kamal Nath has tweeted that for their government, the welfare of the people is on priority and that the act will be implemented in the state only after the appropriate study of the act.
Further, another state-run by Congress Party, Punjab has also refused to implement the new motor vehicle act.
In a conversation with reporters, Punjab State’s Transport Minister Razia Sultana said: “We will take a call after studying the penalty amount that is abnormally high.”
The state government believes that the new hiked penalties will put additional burden on the common man, hence they are taking their own time to study the act before implementing it. She further said, “We will implement the Act after reviewing the penalties with the Chief Minister.”
Apart from this, S S Chauhan, Additional Director General of Police (Traffic), Punjab also said that the number of penalties for traffic-related defaults will be implemented soon after a discussion is conducted in this regard with all the stake-holders. He believes that the idea to impose penalties on people should be to motivate them to follow traffic rules and not to increase the balance of state treasury.
He said, “The state has powers to make amendments in the law as it is a state subject.”
These governments have been able to hold their grounds legally because the implementation of law related to transportation in a state is a matter of State Government. Hence, a state government is at the power not to implement or modify a law enforcing rules about transportation and traffic in their state.
Further, since the ruling party in the centre is BJP and the ruling party in the said states is opposition party congress, this has also been sought as a matter of political warfare. Well, whatever the case may be, the people of Punjab & MP are benefited from this agenda and they can have a sigh of relief for little longer than other states.
Hence, the people of these states can still have the luxury of comparatively 5 to 10 times lesser penalties in case of traffic rules breach. Here is a small comparative list of traffic penalties which have been escalated unreasonably.
| Sr No. | Traffice Offence | Section | Old Fine Amount | New Fine Amount |
| 1 | General Offence | 177 | ₹ 100 | ₹ 500 |
| 2 | Road Regulation Violation | 177 A | ₹ 100 | ₹ 500 |
| 3 | Unauthorised use of vehicles Without license | 180 | ₹ 1,000 | ₹ 5,000 |
| 4 | Driving without license | 181 | ₹ 500 | ₹ 5,000 |
| 5 | Disobedience of Order Of Authorities | 179 | ₹ 500 | ₹ 5,000 |
| 6 | Drunk Driving | 185 | ₹ 2,000 | ₹ 10,000 |
| 7 | Speeding Or Racing | 189 | ₹ 500 | ₹ 5,000 |
| 8 | Vehicle Without Permit | 192A | ₹ 5,000 | ₹ 10,000 |
| 9 | Driving Without Qualification | 182 | ₹ 500 | ₹ 10,000 |
| 10 | Not Wearing Seat Belt/Helmet | 194B | ₹ 100 | ₹ 1,000 |
| 11 | Oversized Vehicles | 182B | (New Rule) | ₹ 5,000 |
| 12 | Not Providing Way For Emergency Vehicles | 194E | (New Rule) | ₹ 10,000 |
| 13 | Travelling Without Ticket | 178 | ₹ 200 | ₹ 500 |
| 14 | Over-speeding | 183 | ₹ 400 | ₹ 1,000 – ₹ 2,000 |
| 15 | Driving Without Insurance | 196 | ₹ 1,000 | ₹ 2,000 |
| 16 | Dangerous Driving | 184 | ₹ 1,000 | ₹ 5,000 |
| 17 | Offenses By Juveniles | 199 | (New Rule) | ₹ 25,000 (3 year imprisonment) |
| 18 | Overloading Goods | 194 | Extra Tonne | ₹ 20,000 & ₹ 2,000/Tonne |
| 19 | Overloading Passengers | 194A | (New Rule) | ₹ 1,000/passenger |
| 20 | Overloading of Two-Wheelers | 194C | ₹ 100 | DL Impounded For 3 Months |
| 21 | Offenses Committed By Enforcing Authorities | 210B | (New Rule) | Twice The Amount Under Relevant Section |
| 22 | Talking On Mobile Phone While Driving | 177 | ₹ 1,000 | ₹ 5,000 |
