High Court Seeks To Discipline Chaotic City Roads
New Delhi: The chaotic Delhi roads may at last get a semblance of discipline. The Delhi High Court on Monday stepped in to hike
traffic fines across the board by Rs 500 and placed a ban on all tinted glasses and parking in Lutyen’s zone.
The slew of directions to revamp the traffic system came three months after a Times of India report had drawn the court’s attention to the increasing road accidents in the city.,
In a comprehensive order, a bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and H R Malhotra also laid down strict guidelines for bus drivers and fixed the speed limit for vehicles — 45-50 kmph for light vehicles within the city and 35-40 kmph for heavy vehicles. All directions will come into effect from April 9.
‘‘Immense influx of light and heavy vehicular traffic has made Delhi roads dangerous to human life. Therefore, control of traffic in NCR and NCT is a matter of paramount public safety and has been a matter of judicial concern,’’ the bench said in its 70-page verdict dealing with each aspect of the traffic system.
The bench had been toying with the idea of increasing traffic fines since ‘‘the gravity of offences like rash driving and red-light jumping have lost their impact because of low fines’’. But it faced stiff resistance from the government which claimed an amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act was required for the purpose. The court got around the problem by introducing a flat ‘‘compounding fee’’ of Rs 500 to be charged with every fine. This, in effect, hikes all traffic fines by Rs 500 from April 9.
The compounding fee, the bench said, was a way to recover the huge expense incurred by the government in traffic modernisation. Alarmed by cases of rape and murder in moving vehicles with tinted windows, the bench decided to ban all kinds of black film on glasses.
traffic fines across the board by Rs 500 and placed a ban on all tinted glasses and parking in Lutyen’s zone.The slew of directions to revamp the traffic system came three months after a Times of India report had drawn the court’s attention to the increasing road accidents in the city.,
In a comprehensive order, a bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and H R Malhotra also laid down strict guidelines for bus drivers and fixed the speed limit for vehicles — 45-50 kmph for light vehicles within the city and 35-40 kmph for heavy vehicles. All directions will come into effect from April 9.
‘‘Immense influx of light and heavy vehicular traffic has made Delhi roads dangerous to human life. Therefore, control of traffic in NCR and NCT is a matter of paramount public safety and has been a matter of judicial concern,’’ the bench said in its 70-page verdict dealing with each aspect of the traffic system.
The bench had been toying with the idea of increasing traffic fines since ‘‘the gravity of offences like rash driving and red-light jumping have lost their impact because of low fines’’. But it faced stiff resistance from the government which claimed an amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act was required for the purpose. The court got around the problem by introducing a flat ‘‘compounding fee’’ of Rs 500 to be charged with every fine. This, in effect, hikes all traffic fines by Rs 500 from April 9.
The compounding fee, the bench said, was a way to recover the huge expense incurred by the government in traffic modernisation. Alarmed by cases of rape and murder in moving vehicles with tinted windows, the bench decided to ban all kinds of black film on glasses.
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