New Motor Vehicle Act 2019

The new Motor Vehicle Act 2019 or the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act 2019 was implemented in September last year. With the introduction of the new act, several traffic fines have increased substantially and it is believed that the stricter penalties will no help the authorities curb the menace of road accidents caused due to negligent driving.

Also read - Driving Licence Smart Card - Know how to Apply Online/Offline

What is Motor Vehicle Bill?

Before the new Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act 2019 was passed in September last year, Lok Sabha initiated this process with the passing of the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill in 2017. The amendments were targeted towards bringing changes in the transport sector to encourage safer driving practices among Indian motor vehicle drivers. The draft for the amendment was put forward in the lower house of the Parliament, with a proposal to impose strict fines on the violators of traffic rules.

Also Read - New traffic rules in india 2019

The Motor Vehicle Bill 2017 (amendment) aims to propose stiffer penalties for varied traffic offences. Following is the summary of the proposed bill-

• Here is a summary of the proposed bill:
• 3-year imprisonment for parents who allow children below 18 years of age to use a motor vehicle.
• Increased compensation for families whose members have met with an accident.
• Under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, there is no limit for a third-party car or two-wheeler insurance. The bill proposed a cap of max 3rd party legal liability to Rs. 10 lakh for death and Rs. 5 lakh for serious injuries.
• Proposed a Motor Accident Fund to be developed for offering mandatory insurance cover for pedestrians in India only for specific accident types.
• Contractors to be blacklisted for bad condition of the roads.
• Promoting e-Governance to enable online facilitation of learning licenses, and getting rid of the educational qualifications while applying for the transport license.
• Submission of Aadhaar number while applying for a driver’s license
• Increase in penalties for serious traffic offences like that of drunk driving, rash driving, and not wearing seatbelts and helmets.

Also read - Driving Licence Status Online – DL Application Status

What is Motor Vehicle Act?

The Motor Vehicles Act came into existence in 1988. It laid down rules and regulations on all aspects of road transport, including registration of motor vehicles, controlling their permits, traffic regulation, insurances and penalties. Also, the Motor Vehicle Act makes it compulsory for a driver to have a valid driving licence. Also, no vehicle can be used without a registration number.

Also read - Process of Driving Licence

Offences covered under Motor Vehicle Act 2019

Under the new Motor Vehicle Act 2019, the penalties for almost all driving errors have gone up significantly, especially if you consider serious offences like those of drunk driving.

Section	Offence	Old Penalty	New Proposed Penalties
177	General	Rs. 100	Rs. 500
New 177A	Rules of road regulation violation	Rs. 100	Rs. 500
178	Ticketless travel	Rs. 200	Rs. 500
179	Disobedience of authorities’ orders	Rs. 500	Rs. 2,000
180	Unauthorized use of vehicles without license	Rs. 1,000	Rs. 5,000
181	Driving without license	Rs. 500	Rs. 5,000
182	Driving despite disqualification	Rs. 500	Rs. 10,000
182 B	Oversize vehicles	New	Rs. 5,000
183	Over speeding	Rs. 400	Rs. 1,000 for LMV Rs. 2,000 for Medium passenger vehicle
184	Dangerous driving penalty	Rs. 1,000	Up to Rs. 5,000
185	Drunken driving	Rs. 2,000	Rs. 10,000
189	Speeding/ Racing	Rs. 500	Rs. 5,000
192 A	Vehicle without permit	Up to Rs. 5,000	Up to Rs. 10,000
193	Aggregators (violations of licensing conditions)	New	Rs. 10,000
194	Overloading	Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 1,000 per extra tonne	Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 2,000 per extra tonne
194 A	Overloading of passengers	New	Rs. 1,000 per extra passenger
194 B	Seat belt	Rs. 100	Rs. 1,000
194 C	Overloading of two wheelers	Rs. 100	Rs. 2,000 Disqualification for 3 months of the licence
194 D	Helmets	Rs. 100	Rs. 1,000 Disqualification for 3 months of the licence
194 E	Not providing way for emergency vehicles	New	Rs. 10,000
196	Driving without Insurance	Rs. 1,000	Rs. 2,000
199	Offences by Juveniles	New	Guardian/Owner shall be deemed to be guilty. Rs. 25,000 with 3 yrs imprisonment.
206	Power of Offices to impound documents	New	Suspension of driving licenses u/s 183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 194C, 194D, 194E
210 B	Offences committed by enforcing authorities	New	Twice the penalty under the relevant section

Also Read : Traffic Signal Rules – Traffic Light Rules in India

New changes under Motor Vehicle Act 2019

The Traffic Rules in India are set as per the New Motor Vehicle Act 2019. Under the revised act, the penalties for traffic violations have been increased significantly and have turned more stringent than ever.

Driving Without License: If you are caught driving without a licence, a fine of Rs 5,000 will be required to be paid by you. This is an increase of ten times from the earlier fine of Rs 500.

Driving Without Insurance: As per the new Motor Vehicle Act 2019, the penalty for driving without insurance for the motor vehicle has been increased from Rs 1,000 and /or imprisonment of up to 3 months to Rs 2,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 3 months for the first-time offenders and Rs 4,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 3 months for the second-time offenders.

Driving With Disqualified DL: In case one is found driving with a disqualified licence, he or she can be fined for Rs 10,000. This fine was just Rs 500 earlier.

Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Intoxicating Substance: Drunk driving or driving under the influence of alcohol or substance is among the biggest concerns today. Of course, it's also a serious offence as it poses a great risk to the safety of both the driver and that of other road users. Hence, as per the new traffic rules and fines, the penalty that the offender has to pay has been increased by several times. Compared to the old penalty of Rs 2,000, a first-time offender now has to pay Rs 10,000 and/or face imprisonment of 6 months. Also, the second time offender has to pay Rs 15,000 and can face up to 2 years of imprisonment.

Not Wearing a Helmet: The traffic fine for riding a two-wheeler without wearing an ISI-approved helmet has been increased from Rs 100 earlier to Rs.1,000 now.

Also Read: Fine for Driving Without Helmet

Racing and Speed-testing: Another highly serious offence that is often seen being committed on our roads is that of racing and speed-testing. For this, the fine has been bumped up from Rs.500 to earlier to Rs.5,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 3 months for the first-time offenders and Rs.10,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 1 year for repeat offenders.

Also Read : Challan for Red Light Jumping

Offences by Juveniles: As before, there is no punishment to the juvenile for this but the owner of the vehicle or the guardian of the underage driver now has to pay a fine of Rs.25,000 along with facing imprisonment of 3 years.

Offences Committed by Enforcing Officers: As per the Motor Vehicle Act 2019, there is no fixed penalty for this offence but the new fine is double the penalty under the relevant section.

Having Two Driving Licences: In case one is found having two or more driving licenses, he or she can be penalized. Also, from now, all driving licences that are to be issued will have a smart chip that can be accessed by the traffic police through a QR code.

Also Read: Road Safety Tips - Road Safety Rules of India

Reason for hike in fine

It is not uncommon to see a motorist that tries to drive on the wrong side of the road or drive in the non-permitted direction on a one-way road. Such antics are not only illegal but also immensely dangerous. It is actually high time people start respecting traffic rules and to become strict with them, the authorities have hiked the penalties. The increase in the fine amount is to teach people to take rules and regulations more seriously.  

Also read - List of Driving Licence (DL) Fees in India

Revised Penalties

New penalty amounts under Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, 2019 from September 1

Penalty	Old Amount	New Amount
Penalty for offenses where no penalty is specifically provided	Rs 100 for first offense and Rs 300 for second/subequent offense	Rs 500 for first time offense, Rs 1,500 for subsequent offense
Violation of road regulations	-	Rs 500 to Rs 1,000
Traveling without Ticket	Rs 200	Rs 500
Disobedience of orders of Authority and refusal to share information	Rs 500	Rs 2,000
Unauthorised use of vehicles without license	Rs 1,000	Rs 5,000
Driving without license	Rs 500	Rs 5,000
Driving despite disqualification	Rs 500	Rs 10,000
Over-speeding	Rs 400	Rs 1000 - Rs 2000 for light motor vehicle, Rs 2,000 - Rs 4,000 for medium passenger or goods vehicles and impounding of driving license for second/subsequent offence.
Dangerous Driving	-	Imprisonment of 6 months to 1 year and/or fine of Rs. 1000- Rs. 5000 for first offence and imprisonment up to 2 years and/or fine up to Rs. 10000 for second offence.
Drunken Driving	-	Imprisonment up to 6 months and/or fine up to Rs. 10000 for first offence and imprisonment up to 2 years and/or fine of Rs. 15000 for second offence.
Driving when mentally or physically unfit to drive for	Rs 200 for first offense, Rs 500 for second/subsequent offense	First offence - Rs. 1000 and second/subsequent offence - Rs.2000
Offences relating to accident	-	Imprisonment of up to 6 months and/or fine up to Rs. 5000 for first offence and imprisonment up to 1 year and/or fine up to Rs. 10000 for second offence.
Racing and speeding	-	Imprisonment of up to 1 month and/or fine up to Rs. 500 for first offence and imprisonment up to 1month and/or fine up to Rs. 10000 for second offence.
Driving uninsured vehicle	fine of Rs. 1000 and/or punishment up to 3 months	Rs. 2000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 months for the first offence and fine of Rs. 4000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 months for the second offence.
Taking vehicle without lawful authority and seizing motor vehicle by force	Rs 500	Rs. 5000
Causing obstruction to free flow of traffic	Rs 50	Rs. 500

Renewal of Driving Licence: As per the new Motor Vehicle Act 2019, an eligible person can apply for renewal of his driving licence anytime between one year from date of expiry to one year after expiry. This means if your licence is getting expired on 28 February 2020, you can apply for renewal from 28 February 2019 to 28 February 2020. However, if you apply for renewal after one year of the expiry of licence then you will be required to undertake the driving licence test once again.

Change in residence address: Since the introduction of the new Motor Vehicle Act 2019, one can change the address in his or her driving licence online and this one can apply for this to any RTO office in the state.

If the motor vehicle is used by the child: Allowing your minor child to drive or ride a motor vehicle has turned out to be an expensive affair since the rollout of the new Motor Vehicle Act 2019. In case you are caught allowing your child to use the motor vehicle, the registration of the vehicle can be suspended for a period of one year. Also, after the period of one year, you will have to apply for re-registration. Also, as per the, sections 199A and 199B of the Motor Vehicle Act Act, you will have to pay a fine of Rs 25,000 and even face imprisonment of up to three years. Also, the minor driver will be ineligible to obtain a learner's licence until the age of 25. Also, there will be an annual increase in the fines by up to 10 per cent.

Also Read - Traffic Signs and Road Safety Signs in India

Conclusion

The introduction of the new Motor Vehicle Act 2019 is clearly aimed at ensuring that motorists start taking traffic rules more seriously, which, in turn, will be promotion of safe and sustainable mobility across the country. We hope that with the introduction of the amendments, the people would now become more careful while using their vehicles. Also, we are hoping for a serious drop in cases of drunk driving, non-usage of seatbelts, rash driving, overspeeding and racing.

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