NEW DELHI: Five or more traffic offences in a year and you could be barred from driving for 3 months. This provision – disqualification or revocation of driving licence (DL) – has been added by the road transport ministry through a fresh amendment to the Motor Vehicles Rules to rein in habitual errant drivers, reports .The licensing authority – RTO or district transport office – has the power to decide on suspension of DL. The rules also state that licensing authority must give the licence holder an opportunity of being heard. The notification published Wednesday said the condition of five or more offences in a year for disqualification of DL commences from Jan 1. Traffic offences will not be carried over beyond one year The new notification said that “no offence or contravention recorded in any previous one-year period shall be taken into account for determining offences or contravention in any subsequent one-year period”.Till now, there were 24 provisions in the rules that could trigger the licencing authority concerned to initiate disqualification of DL. These included theft of vehicle, assault on passenger(s), abduction of passenger(s), driving beyond permitted speed limit, overloading and abandoning vehicle in a public space. These provisions have been made considering that these “constitute nuisance or danger to public”. Now, going by the new provision of five or more traffic offences, such as not wearing helmet, seat belt and jumping red signal, can result in suspension of DLs.The new provision drew mixed reaction from experts in road traffic laws. Former Delhi deputy transport commissioner Anil Chhikara said that while disqualification after five offences is a step in the right direction, but “the conflict is that people driving dangerously are not caught by traffic police”. He added that in absence of a standard operating procedure (SOP), traffic offences recorded using CCTV cameras are often challenged in courts. Rohit Baluja, who teaches police, transport and judicial officers on laws related to motor vehicles, termed the amendment “draconian and conceptually flawed”. The ministry’s notification also specified the procedures for issuing, managing and paying traffic challans, or fines. It said that any police officer in uniform or any other officer authorised by state govt will issue a challan and there can be auto-generation of e-challans. The violator can pay the challan or contest it within 45 days. Failure to contest within 45 days will be treated as deemed acceptance by the offender.
