Wearing seat belt for all car passengers to become compulsory in Mumbai from tomorrow

Wearing seat belt for all passengers in a car will become compulsory from tomorrow (November 1). The Mumbai Police on October 14 had issued an order notifying that wearing seat belts will be compulsory for car drivers and passengers from November 1, 2022.

Mumbai police had said that passengers found not wearing a safety belt will be punished as per rules from tomorrow. The Traffic Police had given time to all vehicle owners who did not have seat-belt facility in their vehicle to get it install by October 31.

"All motor vehicle drivers and all commuters in the vehicle, whoever travels on the roads of Mumbai City, will be mandatory for all commuters and drivers to wear seat belts while travelling from November 1, 2022. Otherwise, action will be taken under section 149 (b) (1) of the motor vehicles (Amendment), act, 2019," Mumbai Police had stated in a press note.


The police had issued this safety order just five weeks after the death of eminent industrialist Cyrus P. Mistry in a road accident on September 4 ostensibly in a speeding vehicle while travelling from Gujarat to Mumbai. A probe into the crash revealed the businessman, who was on the rear seat of the Mercedes car, was not wearing a safety belt. The car was speeding and Mistry died due to the impact of the crash after his vehicle hit the divider of a bridge.

Prior to that, on August 14, prominent Maharashtra politician Vinayak Mete had been killed in a road accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway near Raigad, en route to Mumbai.

The Union Ministry of Road, Transport and Highway had issued draft rules making it mandatory for car makers to install seat belt alarms in all seats of the cars. Earlier in September, Union minister Nitin Gadkari had announced that from now on wearing seat belts would be mandatory for all passengers in a car, including those on rear seats, and flouting the rule will attract penalty.