Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019: Key Features and Penalties

According to the 2018 report of the World Health Organization, the highest number of road accidents occur in India worldwide. Even China, the most populous country, is behind us in this regard.

As per the report of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 2017; there are about 5 lakh road accidents occurred in India every year in which around 1.5 lakh people are killed.

There are around 1.49 lakh people died in 2018 in the road accidents with Uttar Pradesh registering the maximum spike in fatalities.

So in order to prevent the menace of road accidents; the central government has amended the Motor Vehicle 1988 by the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019. This new act is being passed by the Lok Sabha on Jul 23, 2019 and by Rajya Sabha on Jul 31, 2019.

After the passing of this bill Road and transport Minister Nitin Gadkari says that the Bill will provide an Efficient, Safe and Corruption Free Transport System in the Country.

Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act  2019 has been implemented throughout the country since September 1, 2019. Now the penalty has been increased 10 times on various violations.

Let’s have a look on the new features of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019.

1. Compensation for road accident victims:

The Bill increases the minimum compensation for hit and run cases as follows: (i) in case of death, from Rs 25,000 to two lakh rupees, and (ii) in case of grievous injury, from Rs 12,500 to Rs 50,000.

2. Recall of vehicles: The New Bill allows the central government to order for recall of defected motor vehicles which may harm the environment, or the driver, or other road users.

3. Road Safety Board:The National Road Safety Board, will be created by the central government to advise the central and state governments on all aspects of road safety and traffic management.

4. Offence and Fines:The new Bill has increases fines for several offence under the Act.

i. Fine for Drink and Driving: Now the fine is increased from Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 along with imprisonment of 6 months. On the repetition of this act fine would be Rs. 15,000.

ii. Rash driving will cost fine of Rs. 5000 earlier it was Rs.1000.

iii. Driving without driving lisence will be fined Rs 5000 instead of 500 earlier.

iv. Offence by Juveniles is a new category introduced. Now Guardian of the Juvenile / owner of the vehicle shall be fined Rs. 25,000 with 3 yrs imprisonment. For Juvenile to be tried under Juveniles Justice Act. Registration of Motor Vehicle shall be cancelled.

v. If a vehicle manufacturer fails to comply with motor vehicle standards, the penalty will be a fine of up to Rs 100 crore, or imprisonment of up to one year, or both.  

vi. If a contractor fails to comply with road design standards, the penalty will be up to Rs.1 lac.

vii.  Under section 196 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 2019 driving without Insurance will be fined Rs 2000.

viii. Under the section 194 D of the act; riding without Helmets will be fined to Rs 1000 and disqualification for 3 months for licence.

ix. Under section 194B of the Act; driving without seat belt will cost Rs. 1000.

x. Speeding / Racing will be fined Rs 5,000 instead of Rs 500 earlier.

xi. Under section 194 E of the Act; not providing way for emergency vehicles will cost Rs 10,000.

New proposed fines under Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act – 2019 will be;

So the the proposed changes in the old Motor vehicle Act, 2019 is the way forward to improve the Indian transportation system and punish the wilful offenders. I hope that new motor vehicle act will reduce the number of road accidents and offences.

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