The Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways, apparently needs 3 more months to review Motor Vehicle Act, and to introduce it afresh in the parliament. The objective is to refresh it upto "international standards".
![]()
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "We need three months to study the (Motor Vehicle) Act in its totality and then we will try and bring it in Parliament in its next session."
Earlier on June 5th, Gadkari had said that the government in a month's time will re-draft the Motor Vehicle amendment bill, which will be in sync with six advanced nations - US, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Germany and the UK, and thereafter will introduce it in Parliament. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, which could be passed only in the Rajya Sabha in May 2012, proposes hefty penalties for traffic rule violations and drunken driving.
Repeated violations of traffic rules resulting in cancellation of driving license, is likely to be one of the major amendments to the Bill.
"If anyone violates the road rules more than three times, his driving licence will be suspended for six months and if he continues to violate after that, then the driving licence will be cancelled. These are some of the considerations as part of redrafting the Motor Vehicles bill," the Minister had said.
Several provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988, especially those related to penalties for violations, have not been found to be effective in checking road accidents. The last time the Act was amended was in 2001. It is notable that our Motor Vehicles Act has been criticised from time to time. The penalties were often considered small and inadequate specially in cases of severe offences like drunk driving, overspeeding and causing lethal accidents, etc. Even accidental deaths are not -punishable enough, in line with the seriousness of the offence.
![]()
This also brings to mind, among various other cases, the petition of Jyoti Gupta, an Indian housewife who lost her husband, and 3 year old baby girl to an accident, which involved a Roadways bus driver driving on the wrong side of the road. The driver, whose license was given without any driving test in the RTO, claimed that he pressed accelerator, instead the of brake pedal by mistake. He got out on bail the same day he was arrested.
Jyoti Gupta had gathered attention on news, and later, opened an online petition to The Narendra Modi led BJP government, urging them to reform sections under the Motor Vehicle Act.
Similar other efforts have been made in the past, although not all could be channelised properly.
Source: Various online links from websites like Economic times, Business Standard, etc.
---------
What do you think guys? Will this create a change? Is this amendment high time coming, since 2001?
Or will this remain as another amendment, whereby the law is great on paper, but the ground reality remains the same, or gets worse?
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "We need three months to study the (Motor Vehicle) Act in its totality and then we will try and bring it in Parliament in its next session."
Earlier on June 5th, Gadkari had said that the government in a month's time will re-draft the Motor Vehicle amendment bill, which will be in sync with six advanced nations - US, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Germany and the UK, and thereafter will introduce it in Parliament. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, which could be passed only in the Rajya Sabha in May 2012, proposes hefty penalties for traffic rule violations and drunken driving.
Repeated violations of traffic rules resulting in cancellation of driving license, is likely to be one of the major amendments to the Bill.
"If anyone violates the road rules more than three times, his driving licence will be suspended for six months and if he continues to violate after that, then the driving licence will be cancelled. These are some of the considerations as part of redrafting the Motor Vehicles bill," the Minister had said.
Several provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988, especially those related to penalties for violations, have not been found to be effective in checking road accidents. The last time the Act was amended was in 2001. It is notable that our Motor Vehicles Act has been criticised from time to time. The penalties were often considered small and inadequate specially in cases of severe offences like drunk driving, overspeeding and causing lethal accidents, etc. Even accidental deaths are not -punishable enough, in line with the seriousness of the offence.
This also brings to mind, among various other cases, the petition of Jyoti Gupta, an Indian housewife who lost her husband, and 3 year old baby girl to an accident, which involved a Roadways bus driver driving on the wrong side of the road. The driver, whose license was given without any driving test in the RTO, claimed that he pressed accelerator, instead the of brake pedal by mistake. He got out on bail the same day he was arrested.
Jyoti Gupta had gathered attention on news, and later, opened an online petition to The Narendra Modi led BJP government, urging them to reform sections under the Motor Vehicle Act.
Similar other efforts have been made in the past, although not all could be channelised properly.
Source: Various online links from websites like Economic times, Business Standard, etc.
---------
What do you think guys? Will this create a change? Is this amendment high time coming, since 2001?
Or will this remain as another amendment, whereby the law is great on paper, but the ground reality remains the same, or gets worse?