The Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill (MVAB) | What Changes Can We Expect?

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is most likely to approve the amendments made to The Motor Vehicle Act. The Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill or MVAB has been cleared by the Union Cabinet for the second time and is yet to be presented in the Parliament. The updated bill was presented before the union cabinet on June 24, 2019.

The bill was approved in 2017 in the Lok Sabha but couldn’t earn enough support in the Rajya Sabha. With the amendments that have been made, The Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill (MVAB) had to be presented once again in the Rajya Sabha. The already existing Motor Vehicle Act doesn’t seem enough to control the activities happening nowadays on the roads so the amendments had to be made which could protect India from becoming a country with dangerous roads!

The amendments made in the bill have been delayed for implementation because the tenure for the previously elected government ended and also the 16th Lok Sabha came to an end. With the new session commencing now, this bill has to be presented for consideration and approval.

So what does this new Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill (MVAB) brings along? How will it improve or rather change the way you exist on the roads? Read on to find out!

The updated Motor Vehicles Bill is about to be presented in the upcoming session with the following modifications which have been proposed in the interest of common people. The enforcement of these modifications is still subject to the passing of the bill in the next session but we should gear up accordingly and prepare for how we will have to change and mould according to the new laws. The important modifications have been listed below:

1. Higher Penalties:

   The Government has decided to make several changes to The Motor vehicles Act 1988 that is currently in effect. With growing negligence of the drivers day by day the government has decided to push the fines to over 10 times the existing ones. For instance, if you don’t wear a seatbelt while driving, now you will have to pay ₹1000 rather than mere ₹100 which you used to pay earlier. Also blocking the way of the ambulance would land in you in great trouble along with a huge fine of ₹10,000.

2. Mandatory Recall for Defective Vehicles:

   
   Under this amendment, the government will instruct the manufacturers to recall the whole batch of vehicles if any vehicle is delivered with any defect or substandard stuff. The manufacturer would have to take this seriously otherwise the government has set up a fine bar of upto INR 500Cr for the manufacturers along with the reimbursement of the whole badge to each respective customer.

3. New Rules for issuing of Driver’s Licence:

   
   The new law will make the linking of Aadhaar mandatory with the driving licence. A person won’t get a driving licence if they are not able to present their Aadhar. Also, the validity for the licence is proposed to be changed and would be reduced to 10 years from the current 20 years. The government will now set a maximum limit for legal driving age to 60 years. Those getting their driving licence renewed at 55 will get a 5-year extension only.
   

4. Recognition to app-based violators

   Till now, app-based cabbies have paid the same fine for violation of each and every rule as a common man would do. This Motor Vehicle Bill will differentiate cabs like Ola and Uber from private cars in terms of paying violation fines too. They will have to pay hefty sums of money for the rules they break or regulations they violate.

We Indians still have a long way to go before our country’s roads are made safer. No doubt this new bill which is yet to be presented has some great proposals but some loopholes definitely come along. These would be seen when the bill is presented in the upcoming government session when experienced ministers will sit together and discuss it.

We as citizens should try avoiding the violation of rules and regulations. Why are we even giving the government a chance to get strict to such an extent? We are all sensible human beings and should together make this country and this world a happy and safe place to be.

Presenting or passing of bills will continue as it is meant to be but we, as humans should try to avoid such situations where we give the government a chance to make more strict rules and regulations.

Talking about the Motor Vehicle Bill, it’s yet to be presented in the monsoon session and we all await what happens once the session ends.