Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Traffic offences under section 177 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.
Section 177 does not cover any specific traffic violation. Instead, the section lists out punishments for traffic offences where no specific penalty has been established.
The New Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, 2019, also called Motor Vehicles Act, (Amendment of 2019), introduced many changes by significantly increasing the monetary fines on certain traffic offences. Let us take a look at all the new Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 penalties that have been implemented since September 1, 2019:
SECTION 177 OFFENCE AND PENALTY
| Traffic Offence | Old Penalty as per Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 | New Penalty as per Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, 2019 |
| Vehicle without permit | Up to ₹5,000 | Community service, imprisonment of up to 6 months and/or ₹10,000 fine |
| Unauthorised use of a vehicle without valid driving licence | ₹1000 | ₹1,000 – ₹5,000 |
| Seizing motor vehicle by force/taking a vehicle without lawful authority | ₹500 | ₹5,000 |
| Racing/speeding | ₹500 | Community service, imprisonment of 1 month and/or ₹5,000 fine ; for a subsequent offence- imprisonment of up to 1 month and/or ₹10,000 fine |
| Road regulation violation | ₹100 | ₹500 |
| Power of officers to impound documents | N/A | Suspension of driving licence |
| Oversized vehicles | N/A | Community service and/or ₹5,000 – ₹10,000 |
| Overloading of two-wheelers | ₹100 | ₹2,000 fine, disqualification of licence for 3 months and/or community service |
| Overloading of passengers | N/A | ₹1,000 per extra passenger |
| Overloading | ₹2,000 + ₹1,000 per extra tonne | ₹20,000 + ₹2,000 per extra tonne |
| Over-speeding | ₹400 | LMV: ₹1,000 – ₹2,000 MPV/HPV: ₹2,000 – ₹4,000 and/or impounding of driving licence |
| Offences relating to an accident | N/A | For the first offence: imprisonment of up to 6 months and/or fine of up to ₹5,000; For a subsequent offence: imprisonment of up to 1 year and/or ₹10,000 fine |
| Offences committed by enforcing authorities | N/A | Twice the penalty under the relevant section |
| Offences by juveniles | N/A | The guardian/owner of the car shall be deemed to be guilty. 3 years’ imprisonment with a penalty of ₹25,000 and cancellation of the registration of the vehicle for 12 months. The juvenile driving the car will be tried under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children |
| Obstructing the free flow of traffic | ₹50 | ₹500 |
| Not wearing a helmet while riding | ₹100 | Disqualification of driving licence for 3 months and/or ₹1,000 fine, community service |
| Not providing a way for emergency vehicles like ambulance | N/A | ₹10,000 and/or community service |
| No Seat belt | ₹100 | ₹1,000 and/or community service |
| Drunk driving | ₹2,000 | Imprisonment of 6 months-1 year and/or ₹10,000 fine for the first offence; ₹15,000 fine and/or imprisonment of up to 2 years for a subsequent offence ₹15,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 2 years for a subsequent offence |
| Driving without insurance | ₹1,000 and/or punishment up to 3 months | ₹2,000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 months for the first offence; ₹4000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 months for the subsequent offence |
| Driving without a valid driving licence | ₹500 | ₹5,000 and/or community service |
| Driving when mentally/physically unfit to drive | ₹200 for the first offence; ₹500 for a subsequent offence | ₹1,000 for the first offence; ₹2,000 for a subsequent offence |
| Driving despite disqualification of licence | ₹500 | ₹10,000 and/or community service |
| Disobedience of orders of authorities | ₹500 | ₹2,000 |
| Dangerous driving (e.g., jumping a red light) | ₹1,000 | ₹1,000 – ₹5,000 fine and/or imprisonment of 6 months to 1 year for the first offence, seizure of licence; ₹10,000 fine and/or imprisonment of up to 2 years for a subsequent offence |
| Aggregators (violations of licencing conditions) | N/A | ₹25,000 to ₹1 Lakh |
| General offences | ₹100 for the first offence; ₹300 for subsequent offence | ₹500 for the first offence; ₹1,500 for subsequent offence |
The monetary fines under Section 177 of the MV Act, range from ₹500 for first-time offences to ₹1,500 for repeating the same offences.
The traffic violations under Section 177 include offences like not following mandatory traffic signs/particular prescribed signals, allowing someone to obstruct your control of the vehicle, etc. At the time of amendments made in the Motor Vehicles Act, the fines under Section 177 were increased from ₹100 and ₹300 to ₹500 and ₹1,500 respectively.
