Law ministry wants to unburden courts of petty traffic cases

As part of its endeavour to ease the burden on courts, the law ministry has proposed that state officials be vested with powers of civil courts to deal with petty traffic offences.

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently wrote to road transport minister Nitin Gadkari about the proposal and sought his cooperation in taking it forward, as it would require changes in the Motor Vehicles Act.

India’s judicial system is overburdened with cases, dragging for years and delaying the delivery of justice. Many of the cases deal with minor issues, but courts still have to spend time on those. The law ministry has identified traffic offences as one of the areas where courts are inundated with “insignificant issues”, such as over jumping of red lights, wrong parking and driving without wearing the seat belt.

In a bid to reduce pending litigation and backlog of cases, the ministry wants petty traffic offences be compounded by officials deputed by state governments so that those don’t go to courts. Although a few state governments have designated powers to their officials to deal with minor traffic offences, difficulty arises when the party contests his culpability or does not wish to compound the offence.

An offence can be compounded only with the consent of all the parties involved. In the event of a dispute, the matter is referred to courts for adjudication. “Therefore, there is a need to develop an alternate mechanism for resolution of such cases,” Prasad wrote.

He suggested that the Motor Vehicles Act be amended to specify that any dispute relating to minor or petty traffic offences shall be resolved by senior officials who will be conferred the power of civil courts. Once the dispute is resolved, no further appeal shall be permitted, he wrote.

He said a provision could be introduced in the Act to transfer existing or pending minor traffic offences to such officials.

“Resolution of petty disputes outside the purview of the formal court system will contribute to the reduction in pendency and will also lead to decongestion of the court system,” he wrote to Gadkari. “The courts shall then no longer be burdened by petty/minor cases which do not usually require any judicial involvement or judicial minds to resolve the dispute.”