The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 | Indian Motor Vehicle Act

What is the Motor Vehicle Act 1988?

Passed in 1988, the Motor Vehicle Act regulates the different aspects of road transport vehicles. This act provides detailed guidelines about the registration of Motor vehicles, guidelines on licensing the drivers and conductors, registration of motor vehicles and drafting provisions on controlling the permits, liabilities, traffic regulations, insurance and penalties. The Motor Vehicle Act was implemented from 1^st July 1989.

Objectives of Motor Vehicle Act 1988

The Indian Motor Vehicle Act 1988 was enacted in order to cover the following points:

To follow stricter procedures related to grant to driving licenses and the period of validity thereof.

To maintain road safety standards, standards for transportation of hazardous and explosive materials and pollution control measures.

To take care of the fast increasing number of personal vehicles and commercial vehicles in the country.

To increase the amount of compensation of the victims in hit and run cases.

To remove time limit for filing of application by road accident victims for compensation.

Important Provisions Under Motor Vehicle Act 1988

Age Limit for Driving License as Per Motor Vehicle Act 1988

Anyone who is above 18 years of age is eligible to obtain a driving license by following the prescribed procedures.

Insurance of a Vehicle is Must

Under the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, it is mandatory that every vehicle must have a valid Insurance to drive on the road. Whether used for social, domestic or pleasure purpose, vehicles must be insured.

Extent of a Compensation in Case of a Road Accident

The extent of compensation in respect of permanent disability is sum of Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 50,000 in case of a person’s death. Claimant shall not be allowed to show that the permanent injury or death on which the claim was bought was due to any unjust act or misconduct on the part of the claimant. The amount of such death or permanent compensation can’t be reduced on the ground that person’s part of responsibility for such a permanent disability or death.

When the Injured Party is Younger Than 18 Years

If the injured party of the accident is younger than 18 years of age, then he/she cannot claim for damages. They need to file through a lawyer. An applicant may file an application for a settlement with the Motor Accident Claims.

Provision for Fault Liability

The person who is bringing the compensation petition should show that the respondent was negligent. It is really important to have evidence that the respondent was at fault and legally responsible for his actions.

Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill, 2019

This Act has brought some remarkable amendments to Indian Motor Vehicle Act 1988. Have a look:

Minimum educational qualifications of transport drivers under Section 9(4) have been removed.

With insertion of sub - section (5) in Section 12, the necessity of possessing a licence to drive a light motor car for atleast one year before applying for learners’ license has been removed. Now, the applicant can directly apply for the class of vehicle in which he has attained training through an accredited school.

The Section 136A puts the responsibility on the Central Government to make rules for the electronic monitoring. State Government will also implement the same.

Section 184 has broadened the scope of “dangerous driving.” Now it includes jumping red light, driving against the flow of traffic, violating the stop sign, usage of hand held devices at the time of driving and overtaking any motor - vehicle contrary to law.

Section 161 of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment Bill), 2019 related to ‘hit and run cases’ has increased the compensation of grievous injury to Rs. 50,000 or higher and to Rs. 2 Lakhs or higher in case of death.

Changes in Motor Vehicle Act 1988 in effect from 1^st October 2020

New Motor Vehicle Act aims at implementation of enforcement, maintenance of vehicular documents and e-challans through portal for better monitoring. Let’s understand more points related to Indian Motor Vehicle Act :

1. Usage of handheld communication devices at the time of driving shall solely be used for route navigation and should not disturb the concentration of the driver while driving.

2. Motor vehicle owners should maintain their documents on the Central Government online portal like: m - parivahan or Digilocker.

3. Motor vehicle documents such as - Registration Certificates (RC), insurance, fitness and permit, the driving licence certificate for Pollution under check (PUC) that are validated electronically cannot be demanded for physical inspection by the authorities. Even in cases where the offence is made out necessitating the seizure of any such documents.

4. In cases where an offence is made out necessitating the seizure of any documents, the authorities can do so only electronically and cannot demand for physical inspection. Upon seizing such documents, the police officer in uniform authorized by the State Government shall issue a receipt acknowledging such seizure in physical or electronic form.

Landmark Supreme Court judgments on Motor Vehicle Act 1988

1. Case Name: United India Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Sunil Kumar & Anr.

Supreme Court says that insurer can’t raise plea of negligence

It is one of the latest Supreme Court Cases on Motor Vehicle Act, the major issue revolved around the scope of Section 163A of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988. This Act provides the special provisions to pay compensation on the structured formula basis.

Important points to note from this case:

Grant of compensation under Section under Section 163A of MV Act on the basis of structured formula is in the nature of a final award and adjudication is made without any requirement of proof of negligence of driver/owner of the vehicles involved in the accident.

Claimant is not required to establish proof of negligence been made explicit by Section 163A (2). However, the said section does not specifically exclude a possible defense of the Insurer based on the negligence of the claimant. But it permits such a defense to be introduced by the Insurer to be contemplating any such situation would go contrary to the very legislative object behind introduction of Section 163A of the Act.

2. Mukund Dewangan Vs. Oriental Insurance Company Limited

Supreme Courts says driver holding light motor vehicle license is eligible to drive transport vehicle without any endorsement

In this landmark case, the cause of concern was whether a driver who has a license to drive ‘light motor vehicle’ and is driving ‘transport vehicle’ of that class has to obtain an endorsement additionally for driving a transport vehicle.

In reference to the issue, there has been a divergence of opinion and conflict in decisions of this court. However, the issue was later on settled by Three – Judge Bench that there is no requirement to obtain a separate endorsement for driving a transport vehicle. It was further stated that in case a driver is holding a license to drive a motor vehicle, he can even drive transport vehicle of such a class without any endorsement to that effect.

3. National Insurance Company Vs. Pranay Sethi

Supreme Court issues guidelines on Assessment of Compensation

In a landmark judgment passed by the Five - Judge Constitution Bench of Supreme Court, the Supreme Court has issued guidelines for computation of compensation under the Motor Vehicle Act 1988. Some of the factors on which the Bench had issued guidelines were addition of future prospects in order to determine the multiplicand, deduction towards personal and living expenses and the selection of multiplier was also detailed on the reasonable figures on the conventional heads.

It was further concluded that in the case where a driver holds license to drive a light motor vehicle, he can also drive a transport vehicle also without any endorsement to that effect.

4. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Rakesh Kumar & Ors. on 29 February, 2012

Supreme Court says that in order to reject the insurance claim of the insured, the insurer has to prove that the insured was guilty of his negligence

This case was all about whether the insurance company can be liable to pay off the compensation in case the owner of vehicle had got the vehicle insured, however the accident took place when it was being driven by a person not holding the driving license.

5. Lata Wadhawa Vs. State of Bihar

Supreme Court says that the death of children due to fire crash must be compensated

The incident happened on 3^rd March 1989 where most of the people including children were killed in a fire crash. The Court had awarded compensation. The Court noted that kids who passed away were studying in an extravagant school and hailed from upper middle class family. But, it cannot be said that the higher compensation granted was for hardship of life. The Supreme Court had pronounced that that in cases of children in between 5 to 10 years of age is compensated with Rs. 1, 50,000 and Rs. 50,000 for conventional compensation. In the case of children between 10 to 18 years must be compensated with Rs. 4, 10,000 including conventional compensation.

Read More - Lata Wadhawa Vs. State of Bihar

6. KR Madhusudhan Vs. Administrative Officer

The Supreme Court had found that there could be a divergence from the rule of thumb.

This case stands on different factual basis. It is clear that the deceased was entitled to get a rise in income in the future. Hence, this case comes within the `exceptional circumstances.' Therefore, even though the deceased was above 50 years of age, he shall be entitled to increase in income due to future prospects.

In this case, the Supreme Court held that the person holding an expired license would be guilty of the offence of driving a vehicle without license and insured will be liable for committing the breach of the policy. It was held that the Insurance Company has the right to avoid the liability.

Read More - KR Madhusudhan Vs. Administrative Officer

The Motor Vehicle Act 1988

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