Traffic Cops Can't Prohibit You From Recording When They Check Your Documents, Says RTI Reply : Saket Suman

India Times: National: Tuesday, September 10, 2019.

Most amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act came into effect from September 1 and ever since then reports of people being fined hefty amounts for violations of traffic regulations have been doing rounds on news channels and social media.

Violating traffic regulations is almost a norm in India and no matter which part of the country one may be living in, the utter disregard for traffic regulations is visible on an almost daily basis. These amendments are aimed at penalizing those who violate the rules with hefty fines.

What is also clear is the fact that ever since new regulations were enforced, the presence of personnel monitoring the traffic and issuing fines to violators have also increased drastically.

But what if you feel that you are being exploited by the cop and are being charged an unjust fine? Or what if you feel that the cop is using his power to subvert your rights? What are you to do then?

Well, one simple step is getting your smart phone out of your pocket and recording the fiasco, if at all you were to find yourself in such a circumstance.

There is no legal restriction or prohibition on you doing so and it has been revealed in an RTI filed by a Haryana activist.

According to News18, activist Anubhav Sukhija filed the RTI seeking the response of the government with regards to the concern of owners of motor vehicles. The reply said that any individual is free to record such episodes and that there is no legal restriction that prohibits one from doing so.

There has been a dramatic rise in complaints against hefty fines that range in tens of thousands of rupees. 

As many as 63 clauses of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 come into effect from September 1, 2019.

The government’s aim, it says, is to improve road safety through new provisions. The Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had earlier asserted that roughly 1.5 lakh people are killed in road accidents every year in India. The new provisions will deter people from violating traffic regulations.