Fresh notification: First time in U.P, MVIs authorised to compound select traffic offences

: For the first time in Uttar Pradesh, motor vehicle inspectors (MVIs) of the transport department have been authorised to compound certain offences related to violation of traffic rules.

Compounding is an on-the-spot settlement between offenders and enforcement authorities, allowing the violators to avoid court proceedings by paying a fee or fine specified for each compoundable offence.

The Uttar Pradesh government has issued a new notification detailing compounding provisions for various traffic and transport-related offences under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. The notification, issued under Section 200(1) of the Act read with Section 21 of the General Clauses Act, 1897, supersedes the previous order dated July 30, 2020.

Under the new rules notified on April 22 by the principal secretary, transport, designated officers from the transport and police departments, as well as executive magistrates, are authorised to impose compounding fines for a wide range of offences.

These include violations such as illegal parking, failure to present driving or pollution certificates, unauthorised operation of vehicles, overloading, misuse of permits and use of hand-held devices while driving.

“The only new thing about the fresh notification is that it also authorises motor vehicle inspectors to compound offences, largely smaller ones,” a senior transport official said.

“The motor vehicle inspectors also called regional inspectors were never empowered to compound offences,” he added.

The government in December last year approved the creation 351 posts for Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspectors (AMVI) to address the rising number of road accidents in the state. They will work as tehsil-level functionaries.

Among some offences and the fee to get the same compounded are parking violations: ₹500 for the first offence and ₹1,500 for repeat offences.

Failure to produce documents: ₹500–Rs1,500, driving without a valid licence: ₹5,000, driving uninsured vehicles: ₹2,000– ₹4,000, disobedience of lawful authority: ₹2,000;overloading: ₹20,000 + ₹2,000 per excess tonne, tampering with registered numbers: ₹5,000– ₹10,000; over-speeding: ₹2000 in the case of light motor vehicle and ₹4000 in case of medium and heavy passenger/goods vehicles, use of handheld communication device while driving: ₹1,000 in case of first offence and ₹10,000 in case of second offence, failure to use safety seat belt: ₹1,000 and not wearing helmet: ₹1,000.

The fresh notification also reiterated that electronic versions of documents available on DigiLocker will be accepted as valid proof.