Indian Motor Vehicles Act 2017 & Changes In Fines And Penalties For Violators

Published on 21 Jun, 2021, 5:24 AM IST

Updated on 4 Jan, 2023, 8:39 AM IST

Team Ackodrive

4 min read

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Lok Sabha passed the Motor Vehicles (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 amendment’s draft was put forward in the lower house of the Parliament to impose rigid fines for traffic rules violation and to promote e-governance.

Contents

What Is The Bill About?

The Motor Vehicle Bill 2017 (amendment) aims to propose stiffer penalties for varied traffic offences.

Here is a summary of the proposed bill:

A three-year imprisonment for parents of children aged below 18 years if under aged children are found driving and causing fatal accidents.
The bill was passed to take stringent actions against the taxi aggregators.
The proposed bill triggers to increase the 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, however, amends to cap a maximum third-party legal liability to Rs. 10 lakh for death and Rs. 5 lakh for serious injuries.
A Motor Accident Fund is to be raised for offering mandatory insurance cover for pedestrians in India only for specific accident types.
Contractors to be held responsible and blacklisted for bad condition of the roads.
Promoting e-Governance, aiming to increase the driving license validity period, enabling online learning licenses, and getting rid of the educational qualifications while applying for the transport license.
Requirement of Aadhaar number while applying for a driver’s license – to ensure incorporation of online services and to restrict duplicate or fake licenses.
Increase in penalties for traffic violators like drunken driving, dangerous driving, and for those who don’t wear seatbelts and helmets.

How does this impact Motor Vehicle Drivers Directly?

The Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill 2017, passed in the Lok Sabha, has proposed for a hike in traffic penalties by as much as 5 times. Here’s a sneak-peek into the proposed penalties against the older penalty card:

Section		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

Conclusion

Indian Government has introduced this amendment in the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, with an approach to promote safe and sustainable mobility in India. The amendments have been proposed with the aim of changing people’s perception.

Hopefully, now people would be more careful before riding their two-wheelers without helmets and while driving their cars without wearing seatbelts or without valid motor insurance. Not only this, but situations like drunken driving, dangerous driving, speeding, and racing the vehicles would also be penalized with heftier fines.