The Bangalore Traffic police issues instant fines to people travelling without a license or other necessary documents, even though the Motor Vehicle law gives them 15 days to submit the documents.
In many areas of Bangalore, instant fines are being issued to people driving without a license or other necessary documents even though the law gives a motorist 15 days to produce their documents.
The Assistant Police Commissioner, Ramesh K.N. said, “Why should we give any time when people do not abide by their rules? Heavy fines have led to lesser traffic violations today. The instant fine is good. People should not be given any time; else they will take us lightly.”
As per the reports by the traffic police, Rs. 50,000 was collected for not having a driving license and Rs.64,000 was collected for not having other documents while driving in just two weeks in September.
A daily commuter Vibhas Nigam said, “A week ago, I forgot my license at home. The police caught me and fined me. They did not give me any time. They settled at Rs. 3,000 and didn’t even give me a slip for it. I only had that much and the fuel in my vehicle was about to get exhausted. It got really hard for me to get back home.”
In an accident or special cases, seven days are given to a person to show their documents under Section 158 If the traffic police issue a fine without giving the allotted buffer time, the motorist has the option to challenge and dismiss the challan in the court.
Since the start of the year, 70,859 cases have been registered for driving without a license and insurance card. In the last two months Rs. 2.5 crore has been collected as per the traffic police reports.
Pramod Kathavi, Senior Advocate at the High Court says, “If anybody feels that the cop has harassed or troubled him/her, that person should take the cop to the department concerned or to the court. One need not worry about the consequences following, therefore, because if you are on the right side of the law, no authority can penalize you.”
In 2019, a new amendment has been made in the Motor Vehicles Act, which focuses on the methods of pollution control and road safety for which the fines could go up to Rs. 1 lakh. It was tabled in the houses by Nitin Gadkari and aims to enforce stricter penalties for traffic violations by the citizens.
