This story is from August 13, 2019

Drunk driving: Chandigarh court slaps fine of Rs 10,000 each on 40 accused

Drunk driving: Chandigarh court slaps fine of Rs 10,000 each on 40 accused
Picture for representational purpose only.
CHANDIGARH: To teach traffic violators a strict lesson, the Chandigarh district court has imposed fine of Rs 10,000 each on around 40 traffic violators in cases of drunk driving on Tuesday. There was a lot of chaos after heavy amount of fine was imposed on traffic violators and just 9 traffic violators deposited the fine and got their impounded vehicle while others chose not to pay the fine.
This fine has been imposed as per new amendments in Motor Vehicles Act.
As per the new amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act, accused in drunk driving cases would have to pay a fine of Rs 10,000, up from Rs 2,000 at present. Out of around 40 traffic violators, mere 9 persons deposited the fine. The affected traffic violators were mentioned saying that the fine imposed is too much and many also complained that there was no attempt to create awareness from police regarding the same. One traffic violator said, “I had no enough money to pay the fine. I had come up with Rs 2000 and now I cannot pay it.” Other traffic violator who deposited the fine said, “when I got to know that I had to pay Rs 10,000 I was shocked as public was not informed. Also, I had to come back again to court with sufficient money to pay the fine and get my vehicle which was impounded.”
Advocate Rabindra Pandit said, “Chandigarh is union territory and comes directly under the Centre. Once it is notified, courts are the authority to implement the law.”
Home Secretary Arun Kumar Gupta said, “President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the Motor Vehicles(Amendment), Act 2019. A Gazette notification to this effect was issued by ministry of law and justice. Chandigarh comes directly under the Centre and there is no need to issue any separate notification to implement the same.”
SSP Traffic, Shashank Anand said, “There is no official notification and we are awaiting for the same. Once the notification is issued by UT, accordingly awareness drive would be conducted to educate people.”
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