New Motor Vehicle Bill passed by Lok Sobha; fines to get really hefty

The number of road fatalities in India is alarming. In fact, India is home to the highest road fatalities in the world. The good news is that the government of India wants to wants to seriously find a solution to it and in order to do that, it has proposed a new Motor Vehicle Bill which has been passed by Lok Sabha. 

This new bill proposes to amend 68 out of the current 223 sections. Other than a steep increase in fines for violation of traffic rules, the new bill also has put several clauses related to road accidents. If a minor is caught driving and meets with an accident, the parents or the guardians will be held responsible and will attract a three-year jail term and at the same time, the registration of the vehicle will be cancelled. 

The new bill also institutes a 10-fold increase in the compensation awarded for accident victim’s families. There is also Rs 5 lakh compensation in case of serious injury wherein the said amount will not be the upper limit and the affected family will still have an option to withdraw the case or appeal further. The compensation to hit and run cases also saw an eight-fold increase to Rs 2 lakh.

Driving without a licence will now attract a fine of Rs 5000 instead of Rs 500. For drunken driving, the fines have been increased from Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000, and for over speeding, the fine of Rs 400 has been upped to Rs 1,000 for LMVs (light motor vehicles) and Rs 2,000 for passenger vehicles.

Here’s the list of all fines.