New MV rules in place: No need to carry vehicle documents and more...

The Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has amended the Central Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989 with effect from October 1, 2020, to bring in extensive use of IT services and electronic monitoring for better enforcement of traffic rules across the country.

The new rules, the ministry promises, will stop harassment of drivers and would facilitate citizen benefit.

Firstly, traffic personnel will not demand a physical copy of vehicular documents validated through electronic means for inspection. Details of driving licenses, including disqualification, will be recorded and updated in the portal so that in case of an offence appropriate action can be taken without any delay. The portal shall be updated on a regular basis so that the government has an electronic record of the driver behaviour.

“Further upon demanding or inspecting any documents, the date and time stamp of inspection and identity of the police officer in uniform or any other officer authorized by the State Government, shall be recorded on the Portal. This would help in unnecessary re-checking or inspection of vehicles and further would remove harassment to the drivers,” the statement said.

Drivers won’t be required to carry physical documents all the time as they maintain their vehicular documents on Union govt’s online portal like Digi-locker or m-parivahan.

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On use of cellphones while driving, the new rules mandates that handheld communications devices shall be used only for route navigation in a way that it shall not affect the concentration of the driver.

Besides, the government has made certain amendments in the Motor Vehicles (Driving) Regulations 2017 to suit the changes made in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989.