MOTOR VEHICLE ACT,1988

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This article is written by Reddi Amulya Kandula of 6^th Semester of BALLB of Sri Padmavathi Mahila University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, an intern under Legal Vidhiya

ABSTRACT

In today’s world as there is increase in the urbanisation, and every household in the urban areas hold at-least one motor vehicle. In order to compensate the traffic, raise in accidents, traffic jam and pollution in the country, Motor vehicle act 1988 had been introduced in the parliament and it came into force from July 1,1989. Many a times this motor vehicle act had been amended in order to make the rules more stringent to the offenders.

The motor vehicle act of 1988 has been aiming at offering relief to those who have been harmed. Before this there exist a motor vehicle act 1939, which contains all the motor vehicle legislations, it is very hard to change or amend the law whenever needed. So, the revised motor vehicle act had been introduced with all new methods relevant to the motor vehicles.

KEY WORDS

Motor vehicle, stringent laws, amendments, legislations, registration, license, insurance, rules and regulations.

Pre-1988 position

Before, the motor vehicle act, 1988 came into existence, the motor vehicle act, 1939 was applicable for all the motor vehicle accidents in India. This act had been amended many a times to keep it up to a date. As there were many changes took place in road transport technology, passenger pattern, and road network technology, registration and license there is a need for the change in the motor vehicle act, 1939.[1]

So that various committees had been introduced such as National Transport Policy commission, Road safety Committee, National police commission, Low powered- two wheeler committee and law commission also involved for the changes in the road transport. The working group of the committee took into account various suggestions and recommendations earlier made by various bodies they may be central institute of road transport( CIRT), and Automotive research association of India(ARAI), and others. These working group had discussed vigorously with the transport ministers of all state and union territories in order to make some important modifications to the motor vehicle act, 1939.[2]

Some of the features introduced are here

Need for the adoption of higher technology in the automotive sector in order to cope up the demand of commercial and personal vehicles.
Concern for the road safety standards and pollution control measures and transportation of hazardous and explosive materials.
Need the effective ways for finding the traffic offenders.
Simplification of procedure and policy liberalisation’s for private sector operations in the road transport field.
Organising the counselling sessions for the drunk and drive offenders.

INTRODUCTION

The Indian parliament approved the motor vehicle act in 1988, which governs practically all elements of road transport vehicles. It covers all provisions of the motor vehicle act that includes traffic laws, vehicle insurance, motor vehicle registration, controlling permits, and penalties, transportation etc. The motor vehicle act 1988, came into force from 1 July,1989, it had replaced the motor vehicle act 1939, which earlier replaced the motor vehicle act 1914.

The motor vehicle act, 1988 consists 14 chapters, 217 sections and 2 schedules. Where the 2 schedules are mandatory. [3].The motor vehicle act, 1988 has been amended many a times according to the changing circumstances in the country in terms of registration, vehicles license and transportation etc., This act requires all drivers to have a valid driving license and no vehicle may be driven unless it is registered under the motor vehicle act 1988. This act provides a driving licence for the drivers as well as conductors and the registration certificate is valid for only fifteen years and it should be renewed for another five years. And driving a vehicle without licence is a serious traffic violation and hence it is illegal in India. The government of India, in discuss with the state transport ministers as well as the union minister came up with this motor vehicle (amendment) bill to make the amendments to the motor vehicle act in order to ensure that roads are safe in condition. And Loksabha passed the bill in the year 2017.

Generally, the motor vehicle act is relating to the torts that is on the concept of where there is an injury there is a remedy or the compensation. The motor vehicle act is mainly concerned with the innocent people who are frequent victims of the accidents, and major cause of these accidents is the reckless driving by the drivers and even though they had injured they are not able claim for the compensation that they should normally receive it.

OBJECTIVES

The motor vehicle act of 1988 have some of the objectives they are

To take care of the fast increasing number of the commercial vehicles and personal vehicles in the country.
The need for encouraging adoption of higher technology in the automotive sector.
In order to provide road safety measures and pollution control measures as well.
This act provide measures if there is the transportation of hazardous materials as well as the explosive materials.
This act also simplify the procedure in the road transport field.
Need for effective ways of tracking and finding out the offenders.
Nationalisation of certain definitions with the addition of certain new definitions of new type of vehicles in the country.
This act contain the strong procedure to eliminate the time limit for traffic accident victims to file the compensation claim.
To raise the amount of compensation to the hit and run cases.

LAWS THAT INCLUDED IN THE MOTOR VEHICLE ACT,1988.

The fatal accidents act, (1855)
The Road Transport Corporations act, (1950)
The National Highways act, (1956)
The Motor Transport workers act, (1961)
The public liability insurance act, (1962)
The National highways Authority of India act, (1988)
The multimodal transportation of goods act, (1933)
The control of national highways(land and traffic) act, (2002)
The carriage by road act, (2007)

The latest amendment that took place was in the year 2019 in motor vehicle act. And very recently in the year 2022 there is an amendment in the motor vehicle act.

Features of the motor vehicle, 2019 (amendment) :

The motor vehicles (amendment) act introduced several significant features to the existing motor vehicles act,1988. There were many changes that include road safety, improving the traffic management, systems in the registration processes, brought many provisions related to the licensing and enforcement. There are many features in the 2019 amendment act and some of those are here.

Advancing the electronic devices:

This motor vehicle amendment act, 2019 promotes the technology and electronic devices across the country in order to ensure the traffic violations. It contains the electronic surveillance systems such as the CCTV cameras, speedy cameras and red light cameras to detect the traffic violations.

Some of the traffic violations include speeding, suspended licence, hit and run, driving uninsured, reckless driving, failing to wear seat belt, disobeying road signals, parking illegally are some of them. In this most common traffic violation is speeding.

Penalties :

This amendment enforced higher penalties and fines than previous amendments for the traffic violations and that include reckless driving, drunk and drive, dangerous driving, not wearing seatbelt’s while travelling in their personal vehicle that may be a car, not wearing helmet a while travelling in the bike, have higher penalties.

Strict penalties for juvenile offences:

Yes, juveniles are not supposed to drive their personal vehicles such as motor bike and car which result in the civil wrong. As the license are issued only after the person attained the age of 18, without which it cannot be issued. This amendment introduced the stricter penalties on juvenile offenders involved in the accidents. The registration of the vehicle that involved in the accident is cancelled and the juvenile offender will be trailed under the juvenile justice act.

Motor vehicle accidents fund:

This act helps in providing funds to the victims. This act introduced the motor vehicle fund to all the road users in India this helps and compensate the victims of hit and run cases, uninsured vehicles, and accidents caused by unidentified vehicles.

National transportation policy:

The recent amendment if the act also pave the way for the introduction of national transportation policy. This policy aims to provide framework for the development of the road for easy transportation of goods, regulation of the transport system, connectivity of roads between different states for the ease of the transport and multimodal transport.

Good samaritan protection:

This act provides assistance to victims of road accident and also provide them the legal protection as well as raise them to take the compensation for the damage happened to them. This act provide legal protection to the “Good Samaritan” who provide emergency medical or non-medical assistance to the injured.

Recognition of online platforms:

This amendment also recognised the online platform for various processes such licenses, vehicle registrations and permits this simplify and streamline these processes, making them more convenient to the public.

Road safety:

This amendment also paved the way for measures that ensure the road safety. This act made it mandatory for all the passengers that include wearing the seat-belts. Additionally, it mandated the use child restraints for children travelling in the vehicles.

OFFENCES IN THE MOTOR VEHICLE ACT, 1988 INCLUDE:

Driving without the valid license and registration certificate.
Failed to show all the documents required to operate the motor vehicle.
Driving the vehicle without the fitness report.
Driving the vehicle without wearing the seatbelt in a car or helmet for bike.
Rash driving.
Speeding
Drunk and drive.
Allowing the vehicle to be driven by the Juvenile (who did not passed the age of 18)

PUNISHMENTS

In the recent amendment of motor vehicle act, 2019, the government had brought many changes regarding punishments for traffic violations in India. They had brought many stringent punishments and fines for the traffic violations. The violations may include driving/riding a car without any proper insurance, avoiding traffic lights, reckless driving, drunk and drive, hit and run cases

Here are some of the new traffic fines for violations ( from the year 2019 )

The penalty for illegal racing and speeding had been increased to rupees 5000/- and imprisonment of up to 3 months as compared to the old punishment and if it repeated again the punishment will more severe fine up to 10,000/- rupees and one year punishment.
The amendment of motor vehicle act, 2019 also brought penalties for the juveniles if they violated the traffic signals and else more. The punishment will be of rupees 25000/- fine and upto 3 years of punishment. In this special type of case as there were juveniles were been included the owner of the vehicle or guardian will be the guilty
There is punishment regarding driving or riding the vehicle without the licence and registration certificate is the type of traffic violation and there is punishment of rupees 5000/- which is ten times higher than older punishment.
There is a punishment of not having a valid driving licence and there is a punishment of rupees 2000/- and if it repeated again then it would be of ₹4000/-.
The penalty of driving the vehicle in alcoholic condition is type of traffic violation and there is also stringent punishment regarding this type of act. If the offence is for the first time the punishment will be of ₹10,000 and imprisonment of one year and it is repeated for second time then there would be the imprisonment of two years and ₹15,000/- fine.

CASE LAWS

In the case of Balakrishnan Nair Vs p. Vijayan it was noted that who drives the vehicle on the public road reckless and rash will amount to the punishment according to the new amendment of the motor vehicle act, 2019 . A person who drives the vehicle is responsible not only for the actions but also consequences of that particular accident. The speed of the reliable indicator for the violation. Driving at very low speed also the traffic violation and still qualify as the rash and negligent driving according to the section 279 of IPC. To apply these three matters will be so mandatory

The way he was driven the vehicle.
Whether it was driven negligently or recklessly.
If negligent or reckless endangered the human species.

If the above three are there will be a punishment according to the section 279 of IPC.

In the case of Subhash Chand Vs state of Punjab, here the appellant was driving the truck so negligent on the wrong side of the busy road which resulted in the accident of the third party which result in death. Here the trail court informed that it comes under the negligent and reckless driving and he will punished according to the section 279 and 394 A of IPC. and was punished with the imprisonment of six months and ₹100/- of fine.

EMERGING TRENDS

Recently in the year 2022 there the amendment took place in the motor vehicle act. The current amendments made extensions to the previous amendments, these laid down the procedure for the quick timely and accurate investigation and settlement for motor accidents that mainly include hit and run cases. And their aim is to ensure the motor vehicle accidents insurance claims should be settled with in a period of six month to a year. The Delhi High Court introduced these changes in the motor vehicle act.

Recent amendments of motor vehicle act deal with third party insurance and claims management that include third party insurance and claims management and also filing the claims of motor accidents claims tribunal.

In the year 2017, as per the data of ministry of road transport and Highways under the guidance of minister Nithin Gadkari, the data had been collected as 4.65 lakh road accidents had taken place in a year in which 1.14 lakh individuals had been killed.so in order to save the precious lives of the people, the motor vehicle act based in the recommendations of the working group of transport ministers of union as well as the states had came up with noble features. Giving them compensation for the damage and also giving them medical and non-medical assistance to them.

We are losing 2% GDP due to deaths and families gets destroyed as people due to road accidents says by the minister of road and transport minister NITHIN GADKARI

In India, every year we have five lakh accidents and one lakh fifty thousand deaths out of this 65% of the dead are in the age gap of 18-35 years. We also have highest number of road accidents in the world.

CONCLUSION

The motor vehicle act ensures the safety of all the citizens in the country. The motor vehicle act not only vehicle owners and drivers but also the people who utilise the roads on regular basis in the country. As the commercial and personal vehicles are growing rapidly it is very important to change the laws of the motor vehicle act in order to cope up the incidents that happen in future. This act also ensures the uniformity across the country and prevent the traffic jam and accidents. And the citizens of the country should be able to follow the rules of motor vehicle act, as the changes are done for the benefit of the people, they have to follow the rules and regulations mentioned in the act. Most importantly the act came up with an amendment that to provide the compensation from the offenders to the victims or the innocent people of the accidents and providing medical and non-medical assurance is one of the best features if the act. And the traffic police should be able to give the counselling sessions to the offenders related to the cases of hit and run, speeding, drunk and drive, reckless driving, not wearing the seatbelt as well as helmets and etc.,

Thus, the concludes that every citizen of India should follow the rules and restrictions of the motor vehicle act. So that we can control the accidents that happen in a year.

REFERENCES