Best Lawyers in Chandigarh Law on hold, no hefty fines for traffic violations for now

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 2

The state government has not implemented the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019, which came into force countrywide from September 1. The state would discuss the new provisions of the amended Act with the stakeholder departments before implementing it.

Officials said the plea of Punjab had been to enact laws as deterrence to traffic violations rather than depending mainly on hefty fines, which is the mainstay of the amended provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 2019.

The BJP-led NDA government had got the amended Act passed in both houses in July. Punjab is likely to have a meeting of the state Transport Minister, department officials, traffic wing of the police and other government departments, road safety experts and NGOs on the matter. No date has been finalised so far.

Additional Director General of Police (Traffic) Sharad Satya Chauhan said a meeting would be held soon. “We will discuss the new provisions with all stakeholders and act accordingly,” he said, adding, “The date would be announced soon.”

The 63 provisions of the new Motor Vehicles Act deal with penalties, licences, registration and the National Transport Policy. It has hiked fines for various traffic violations. For instance, a violator will have to pay Rs 5,000 instead of Rs 500 for driving without licence; the penalty for drunken driving is imprisonment up to 6 months and/or fine up to Rs 10,000 for the first offence and imprisonment up to 2 years and/or fine of Rs 15,000 for the second offence.

As per a report on road safety in Punjab based on 2018 figures, 4,725 persons lost their lives in road accidents in the state.

Best Lawyers in Chandigarh High Court