The penalties for road rule violations have gone up significantly after the new Motor Vehicle Act came into force from September 1, 2019. Motorists can produce digital documents stored on DigiLocker or mParivahan app. What are the new Traffic Fines, What are some people-friendly clauses introduced example people can now get their driving licences renewed anytime within a year before the expiry of the current licence. Comparison of Traffic Fines in India with Other countries What Documents are required to be carried while driving, How to store these documents in DigiLocker?

In Gurugram, a biker was fined Rs 23,000 and a trucker Rs 59,000, while an auto-rickshaw driver was challaned Rs 47,500 for multiple offences in Odisha.

“We expect every driver to be responsible on road and comply with traffic rules” said Nitin Gadkari

As per News 18  article If you have forgotten your papers at home, you have 15-days time to present them to the authorities, and get your challan cancelled for a sum of Rs. 100.

What are New Traffice fines or Penalties

As many as 63 clauses of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 came into effect from September 1, 2019. The government aims to improve road safety through new provisions. The Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has pointed out in the past that roughly 1.5 lakh people are killed in road accidents every year in India. The new provisions is expected to scare people from violating traffic regulations.

As per the new guidelines,

• For driving without using a seat belt or helmet, the fine has been hiked from Rs. 100 to Rs. 1,000. Even a pillion rider has to pay 1000 rs for not wearing the helmet.
• If you are found riding a two-wheeler with gears wearing flip-flops or sandals, you will be liable to pay a fine of Rs 1,000. This rule is not new but is now being implemented strictly by traffic police personnel
• The penalty for driving without a licence has been hiked from Rs. 500 to Rs. 5,000,
• For driving an uninsured vehicle you can be penalised an amount of Rs 2,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 3 months for the first time you are caught. For the second offense, a fine of Rs 4,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 3 months.
• For Drunken Driving – Imprisonment up to 6 months and/or fine up to Rs. 10000 for first offence and imprisonment up to 2 years and/or fine of Rs. 15000 for second offence
• Driving without qualification, the fine has been raised from Rs. 500 to Rs. 10,000.
• For Overloading of Two-Wheelers, fine has been hiked from Rs 100 to Rs.2,000 and Disqualification of License for 3 months
• For over speeding, the penalty has been increased from Rs. 400 to Rs. 1,000 for light motor vehicles and 2,000 for medium passenger vehicles.
• Causing obstruction in free flow of traffic can lead to penalty of Rs 500 up from Rs 50
• For Travelling without ticket in state transport buses the penalty amount has been increased from up to Rs 200 to Rs 500.
• The violation of PUC norm invites a penalty of Rs 10,000. Previously it was Rs 1,000 on the first violation and Rs 2,000 the second time. 
• Disobeying orders from the Authorities and Refusing to Share Information fine has been hiked from Rs.500 to Rs.2,000

The fines are burdensome for violators, but the amended provisions also have some people-friendly clauses. For example, people can now get their driving licences renewed anytime within a year before the expiry of the current licence. Applying for renewal after one year from the date of expiry of driving license, will require the applicant to pass the driving test again.

Applicants of learner’s licence can now apply to any licencing authority in the state and submit the application online. The minimum educational qualification to drive a transport vehicle has been removed.

List of New traffic fines applicable from September 1 2019

If you are riding a two-wheeler wearing a Helmet is a must. If you are driving a four-wheeler one needs to wear a seat belt. Below is the list of all the important documents which you should while driving, at all times.

•  Registration Certificate of your vehicle:  It is the Registration Certificate of your vehicle which allows the vehicle to be legally driven. This is a mandatory document whenever your vehicle is inspected.
• Emission Certificate or PUC (Pollution Under-Control ) Certificate: The certificate says that the gases emitted from your vehicle meet the standards set by authorities and is not harmful or causing pollution. In the Pollution Under Control (PUC) test, vehicles are checked for emissions of smoke, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and other air pollutants. Based on the test, a PUC certificate is issued to certify that the vehicle meets emission and pollution control norms.  After 1 year from registration date, every motor vehicle must get valid PUC certificate. The fees for pollution checking
  • Two and Three Wheeler: Rs 60 (Petrol / CNG / LPG vehicle)
  • Four Wheeler: Rs 80 (Petrol / CNG / LPG vehicle)
  • Diesel vehicle: Rs 100

• Driving License: Whenever you are driving, your license should always accompany you.
• Certificate of Insurance: The Motor Vehicle’s Act passed in the year 1988 has mandated that every vehicle plying on the roads should have a valid atleast third party insurance cover. So whether you have a car or a bike, you must have an insurance policy. Our article explains the Difference between Third Party and Comprehensive Insurance Policy for Cars and Bikes
• Certificate of Fitness– If you are using your vehicle only for purpose of transportation, then you must always have the permits necessary to operate the vehicle and also carry the fitness certificate of your vehicle which is an official document which certifies that the vehicle is fit to be driven in public places.

Our article Helmet: ISI mark, Type of Helmets, difference between ISI and fake helmets covers information about Helmets in detail

How can one carry Important Driving Documents in Digital Format

You can carry orginal papers. Motorists can produce digital documents. Digital documents do not mean scanned copy or a photo of driving license, RC (registration certificate) or insurance. They have to be stored on DigiLocker or mParivahan app. Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India issued a Notification No. RT- 11036/64/2017-MVL Dated: 8th August, 2017 regarding treating of documents in the electronic forms in the Digilocker platform at par with the certificates issued by the Transport Authorities. Click here for the Notification:

Using DigiLocker is simple – you sign up to the DigiLocker (Web or Mobile application), verify your phone number using an OTP. You then need to enter your Aadhaar details  to uploading documents – you can upload your own scanned documents, and then there are issued documents, which are e-documents issued by the different government agencies.

Our article What is Digital Locker? How to Register, Upload Driving License, RC explains in detail with pictures and videos

DIGILOCKER REGISTRATION PROCEDURE

• Visit the web site: https://digilocker.gov.in/ If New User Click on “Sign Up” for Registration or
  Download the digilocker App in your Mobile
• Create Your user-id in Digilocker by providing your Mobile No. You can create your own User-ID and password to register with digilocker.gov.in
• Enter Your Aadhaar number
• After successful creation of user-id, Aadhaar document will be pushed automatically and issued to your Digilocker account.

PROCEDURE FOR DOWNLOADING DOCUMENTS THROUGH DIGILOCKER MOBILE APP

• Sign in Digilocker account
• Enter user-id and password
• Go to “issued” option, Search your issued documents
• For example For  Select “Karnataka Department of Transport, Karnataka as shown below;
• screen will be display showing “Driving License” and “Registration of Vehicles”.
• Select the document.
  • If “Driving License” is selected, the following screen will be displayed, then enter Driving License No. and S/O, W/O, D/O and check the box for giving the consent. On completion of entries, the DL can be downloaded into your Digilocker Account.
  • If “Registration of vehicles” is selected, the following screen will be displayed, then enter Vehicle Registration No., S/O, W/O, D/O, Chassis No. of the vehicle and check the box for giving the consent. On completion of entries, the Vehicle Registration No. can be downloaded into your Digilocker Account.

How to get Driving License , RC in DigiLocker

Are the Hefty Traffic Fines Justified?

The fear of such challans has resulted in a spike in the sales of helmets, removal of power horns and demand for ‘pollution under control’ certificates. At the same time, the issuance of compounded challans – often running into more than the selling price of the vehicle concerned – has also made many states wary of the move.

Many state governments are not convinced by the high penalties. They believe the idea should be to deter violations rather than victimise motorists. Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat, Telangana ruled by NDA alliance partner Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, Trinamool Congress’s West Bengal have deferred the Act’s implementation and constituted committees to ‘soften’ the impact on motorists.

Amid resentment over the imposition of heavy fines on traffic rule violators, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik directed officials not to enforce provisions of the new Motor Vehicles Act aggressively for 3 months.

Let’s talk about Numbers –

• In 2018, 1.49 lakh died in road accidents and government spent more than 500 crores in ads for awareness but people were still undisciplined.
• Many families are suffering economically because they lost someone who was earning for them.
• If an accident occurs and it turns in terrible traffic Jam. The  country loose thousands of hours of work because employees are late.

As a pedestrian, I say, fine of 23,000 is nothing, said Smiti on Quora

You should come and see the way they drive, and the way I have to cross the roads.  When the signal is red, the bikers don’t stop. When the signal is green, the opposite side bikers don’t stop. When do I cross?

Zebra crossings are a joke to them. All the bikers will seive through the cars and block the crossing.

They do not leave footpaths, cycle tracks, and even parks for us. Everywhere, they have to budge their scooty in.

Examples of Some of the Hefty Fines imposed

In Gurugram, a biker was fined Rs 23,000 and a trucker Rs 59,000, while an auto-rickshaw driver was challaned Rs 47,500 for multiple offences in Odisha.

Delhi Man Surrenders Activa After Police Fines Him Rs 23,000; Says Scooter Cheaper Than Challan. the price of his second-hand scooter is hardly Rs 15,000.

The penalty of Rs 47,500 included Rs 5000 for having an invalid driving license, Rs 10000 for drunken driving, Rs 10000 for violating air/noise pollution, Rs 10000 for violating permit conditions and Rs 5,000 in other references. He was also fined Rs 5,000 for using a vehicle without registration, Rs 2,000 for plying without insurance and general offence of Rs 500.

Rs 23,000 fine on biker was for not carrying his vehicle’s registration documents, not carrying driving licence, not having his insurance papers, not wearing a helmet and the pollution certificate was also missing.

Truck Driver in Delhi was stopped near Rajiv Chowk for jumping a traffic signal but tried to escape. He was chased by cops. He was fined for 10 violations — driving without licence, registration certificate, plying vehicle without fitness, insurance, pollution certificate, carrying dangerous goods, dangerous driving, disobeying police orders, disobeying traffic signal and jumping signal. His vehicle has been impounded.

Comparison of Traffic Fines in India with Other countries

Traffic Fines in Other countries

Traffic Fines in India

List of New Traffic Fines from 1 Sep 2019

Gazette Notification of the Motor Vehicle Act

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Bribing Traffic Officials

To get away from the fine and penalties arising due to breaking traffic rules in India, people try to bribe police officials. To some extent, people even manage to get away by paying a bribe in the form of cash. However, bribing an official is a crime in itself and should not be committed.

The government is taking certain measures to decrease and eventually eliminate this atrocious crime. One of such measures is the introduction of ‘e-challan‘. This system works similar to you purchasing something and using your debit or credit card to pay the money and receiving a receipt. This way, cash does not come into the picture and the funds are transferred directly to the government. In this manner, they can also keep a track of offences and the people involved.

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• What is Digital Locker? How to Register, Upload Driving License, RC
• Understanding Ex Showroom Price and On Road Price of Vehicle
• Cost of owning a Car
• What is Car Insurance
• Helmet: ISI mark, Type of Helmets, difference between ISI and fake helmets
• When you loose your wallet,Credit Card, PAN Card, Driving License
• Difference between Third Party and Comprehensive Insurance Policy for Cars and Bikes