In the coming days, drivers caught on the wrong side of traffic laws in the city will be able to pay on-the-spot fines to the Traffic Police and Transport Department personnel, instead of going to court.
The enhanced quantum of fines under the provisions of the amended Motor Vehicles (MV) Act — which came into effect in Delhi on September 1, 2019 — for various traffic violations, however, will remain in place with Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal giving his nod to a notification to this effect. The move will come into efffect following the publication of the notification in the Official Gazette.
According to the notification, the L-G has authorised officers of the rank of Head Constables and above of both the Traffic Police and the Transport Department to issue fines up to ₹1,000 while officers of the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector and above from both units have been authorised to issue fines for a majority of the traffic offences.
While restricting the movement of emergency vehicles entails a fine of ₹10,000, parking in an unauthorised manner leads to a ₹2,000 fine.
Violations such as not wearing a helmet will mean a fine of ₹1,000 fine, and not having a valid Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate entails a fine of ₹10,000.
The quantum of fines has not been reduced by the Delhi government despite it having the discretionary powers to do so. Motorists have been paying enhanced penalties prescribed in the amended MV Act since September 1, 2019, but were forced to go to court since the Act had not been notified by the Delhi government.
State discretion
Section 200 of the amended Act authorises the State government to fix the quantum of penalty for some offences that are compoundable. The Traffic Police and the State Transport Department are empowered to collect a fine on the spot.
The amended Act prescribes penalties for 61 offences. The State government does not have discretion in 27 offences. The Delhi government had the discretion of keeping the penalty 100% as prescribed in the Act or reduce it in the case of 34 compoundable offences.
It decided to keep the maximum prescribed penalty with road safety in mind.
