Delhi Police personnel will have to pay twice penalty for traffic violation

New Delhi: Delhi Police personnel will have to pay twice the penalty if they violate traffic rules in the national capital, according to an official order.

Joint Commissioner (traffic) Meenu Choudhary on Tuesday issued an order citing the new law which states "any authority that is empowered to enforce the provision of this Act, if such authority commits an offense...shall be liable for twice the penalty corresponding to that offence..."

"Therefore, all DCPs/Units are directed to brief and sensitise the staff working under their operational control accordingly to follow traffic rules and regulations in true letter and spirit whether they are riding or driving police vehicles or their own private vehicles," Choudhary said in the order.

In July, Parliament had passed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The new law seeks to tighten traffic regulations and impose steep penalties for violations of the traffic rules.

As the Delhi government has not notified the new rules, traffic police personnel have been issuing court challans for traffic violations.

On Tuesday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said states do not have any discretion in the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Act but the city government was studying how the other states were, saying they would "not implement the new law".