Cabinet approves Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016: Historical Step towards making roads safe and save lakhs of innocent lives

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016. The Amendment aims to improve Every year 5 lakh road accidents are reported in the country in which 1.5 lakh people lose their lives. Government is committed to reduce the accidents and fatalities by 50% in five years. To address the issue of road safety, a draft Road Transport & Safety Bill was prepared soon after NDA Government came to power. However, most of the States have expressed reservations. To address the issue of road safety and to improve the facilitation of the citizens while dealing with transport departments, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways constituted a Group of Transport Ministers (GoM) of the States. The GoM headed by Sh. Yoonus Khan, Hon. Transport Minister of Rajasthan held three meetings. A total of 18 Transport Ministers from different political parties participated in these meetings and they have submitted three interim reports. The GoM recommended that to address the pressing issue of road safety and improving transport scenario, Government should immediately bring amendments to the present Motor Vehicle Act. On the basis of recommendations of the GoM and other pressing requirements, MoRTH introduced the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016 for consideration of the Cabinet. Today Cabinet Chaired by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the bill. In the present Motor Vehicle Act, there are 223 Sections out of which the Bill aims to amend 68 sections whereas Chapters 10 has been deleted and a Chapter 11 is being replaced with new provisions to simplify third party insurance claims and settlement process. The important provisions include increase in compensation for Hit & Run cases from Rs. 25000 to Rs. 2 lakhs. It also has provision for payment of compensation upto Rs 10 lakh in road accidents fatalities. The Bill also proposes insertion of 28 new sections. The amendments mainly focus on issues relating to improving road safety, citizens’ facilitation while dealing with the Transport Department. Strengthening rural transport, last mile connectivity and public transport, automation and computerization and enabling online services. The Bill propose to improve the transport scenario in the country by permitting the States to grant exemptions in Stage carriage and contract carriage permits for promoting rural transport, public transport, last mile connectivity and for passenger convenience and road safety. The Bill proposes that the State Government can specify a multiplier, not less than one and not greater than ten, to be applied to each fine under this Act and such modified fine. The bill proposes that the State Government can regulate the activities in a public place of pedestrians and such means of transport. Improving delivery of services to the stakeholders using e-Governance is one of the major focuses of this Bill. This include enabling online learning licenses, increasing validity period for driving licenses, doing away with the requirements of educational qualifications for transport licenses are some of the features. The Bill proposes offences committed by Juveniles. The Guardian / owner shall be deemed to be guilty in cases of offences by the Juveniles and Juvenile to be tried under JJ Act. Registration of Motor Vehicle to be cancelled To improve the registration process for new vehicles, registration at the end of the dealer is being enabled and restrictions have been imposed on temporary registration. In the area of road safety, bill proposes to increase penalties to act as deterrent against traffic violations. Stricter provisions are being proposed in respect of offences like juvenile driving, drunken driving, driving without licence, dangerous driving, over-speeding, overloading etc. Stricter provisions for helmets have been introduced along with provisions for electronic detection of violations. To help the road accident victims, Good Samaritan guidelines have been incorporated in the Bill. The Bill also proposes to mandate the automated fitness testing for the transport vehicles with effect from 1st October 2018. This would reduce corruption in the Transport Department while improving the road worthiness of the vehicle. The penalties are also proposed for deliberate violation of safety/environmental regulations as well as body builders and spare part suppliers. To bring harmony of the registration and licensing process, it is proposed to create National Register for Driving Licence and National Register for Vehicle registration through “Vahan” & “Sarathi” platforms. This will facilitate uniformity of the process across the country. The process for testing and certification for automobiles is proposed to be regulated more effectively. The testing agencies issuing automobile approvals have been brought under the ambit of the Act. The driving training process has been strengthened enabling faster issuance of transport licenses. This will help in reducing the shortage of commercial drivers in the country. To facilitate transport solutions for Divyang, the bottlenecks have been removed in respect of grant of driving licenses as well as alterations in the vehicles to make it fit for use of Divyang. Hon’ble Transport Minister Shri Nitin Gadkari has termed the Motor vehicle (Amendment) 2016 passed by cabinet as biggest reforms in the Road Safety & transport sector. He has expressed his gratitude to Hon’ble Prime Minister for his guidance & Support. He has also expressed his special appreciation for the efforts put in by Group of State Transport Ministers to formulate these amendments. He has also expressed his confidence that parliament shall take up the amendments next week and has appealed to all parties to support the bill which a step in right direction to provide safe & public friendly transport eco system Section Old Provision / Penalty New Proposed Provision / Minimum Penalties 177 General Rs 100 Rs 500 New 177A Rules of road regulation violation Rs 100 Rs 500 178 Travel without ticket RS 200 Rs 500 179 Disobedience of orders of authorities Rs 500 Rs 2000 180 Unautorized use of vehicles without licence Rs 1000 Rs 5000 181 Driving without licence Rs 500 Rs 5000 182 Driving despite disqualification Rs 500 Rs 10,000 182 B Oversize vehicles New Rs 5000 183 Over speeding Rs 400 Rs 1000 for LMV Rs 2000 for Medium passenger vehicle 184 Dangerous driving penalty Rs 1000 Upto Rs 5000 185 Drunken driving Rs 2000 Rs 10,000 189 Speeding / Racing Rs 500 Rs 5,000 192 A Vehicle without permit upto Rs 5000 Upto Rs 10,000 193 Aggregators (violations of licencing conditions) New Rs 25,000 to Rs 1,00,000 194 Overloading Rs 2000 and Rs 1000 per extra tonne Rs 20,000 and Rs 2000 per extra tonne 194 A Overloading of passengers Rs 1000 per extra passenger 194 B Seat belt Rs 100 Rs 1000 194 C Overloading of two wheelers Rs 100 Rs 2000, Disqualification for 3 months for licence 194 D Helmets Rs 100 Rs 1000 Disqualification for 3 months for licence 194 E Not providing way for emergency vehicles New Rs 10,000 196 Driving Without Insurance RS 1000 Rs 2000 199 Offences by Juveniles New Guardian / owner shall be deemed to be guilty. Rs 25,000 with 3 yrs imprisonment. For Juvenile to be tried under JJ Act. Registration of Motor Vehicle to be cancelled 206 Power of Officers to impound documents Suspension of driving licenses u/s 183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 194C, 194D, 194E 210 B Offences committed by enforcing authorities Twice the penalty under the relevant section