Traffic police can now suspend drivers’ licences

Next time if you are caught talking on your mobile phone while driving or for over-speeding, you may end up loosing your driving licence for up to three months. Paying a meagre penalty of `100 is not going to get you off the hook as the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety has empowered the Delhi traffic police to seize driving licences of the traffic violators.

A senior police officer recently tweeted that the apex court has authorised the “police to seize licences of traffic violator of speed limit, traffic signals and using mobile while driving”. The tweet said that the police will start seizing the driving licences of traffic violators as empowered by committee on road safety. The officer said that he had already made this request to the committee and after getting a green signal, the same would be implemented very soon. The committee on road safety had earlier recommended that the driving licences of errant drivers be suspended for three months for violations like over-speeding, jumping red lights and using phone while driving. It had even recommended jail-time for serious violations like driving recklessly or under the influence of alcohol.

Since only the transport department can suspend any driving licence, the traffic police could only recommend the cancellation of the licence to the department as it earlier had no powers to seize the licences. The senior officer had requested the Supreme Court Committee to empower the police to seize the licence as means of a strong deterrent against traffic violators.

So far, the traffic police used to recommend the cancellation of licences to the transport department after which they used to issue a notice to the driver to surrender the licence. By the time that whole process used to be over, a major part of three month would elapse and the offenders during this period could drive freely on the city roads. Now the offenders licences would be seized and they would not be able to drive their vehicles.