• साहसी नागरिक
• 13 years ago
• 16904 दर्शनों की संख्या

PUC Expired?? How to handle Mumbai Traffic Police for this

• Police
• Activities on Beat

Hi,
My 2-wheeler was stopped by a police constable at Mulund(West) check nakka. When asked about the reason to stop,
I got answer as "routine check up". He asked me to produce the documents(Regst. Papers, Insurance, PUC). Unfortunately
I was not holding those documents at that time and my PUC was expired 1 month back. I requested him, that I stay only 1 mile from here.
I will keep my bike here and return back with documents. However, he told me that I have to pay fine for not able to show documents.
I said all right, give me the "chalaan".
He explicitly asked me "If you want you can settle it right now and you will get a receipt" I asked "How much fine I need to pay?" He replied "Rs 1000/- only"
I was quite surprised. He tried to convenience me showing some paper mentioning Rs 1000/- fine if PUC is expired. I decided to pay it later at police station.
I immediately gone through PUC verification for my bike on the same day and got PUC card.
Next day I went to police station to pay penalty and get back my liscence. After looking into my documents the constable on duty told me that since I have PUC
verified my bike on the same day I was caught by police, it is quite obvious that I PUC verified my bike after police caught me Therefore I have to pay Rs 1000/-.
I was not convenienced with the fine amount and insisted to talk to police inspector(PI). Then he asked me to wait for half hour since with reason that PI is
having lunch. After one hour after meeting PI I tried to explain my case to him. I tried to tell him that I got PUC verified my bike on the same day after getting
"chalan". This mean my bike was already below pollution norms. And requested him to be kind with me. But the PI on duty quite rudely replied me to pay Rs 1000/-
and told me that, If I wand to to logically I should appear in Court!!. I said nothing and decided to investigate more before paying penalty.

I visited to Mumbai Traffic Police website and found interesting link listing offenses and penalties for each(link provided below) and found that for my offense
the maximum fine is Rs 100/- only. I a bit confidence I called "Mumbai Traffic Police Joint Commissioner", however he was not in office and person and someone else
received call. He asked me the reason for call. On my explanation to my surprise, he started telling me that the fine for not holding PUC is Rs 1000/- only
I told him about the penalty list document on Police website, then he asked me to contact Sr. Police Inspector who is prosecutor and deals with all issues.
I called him and again explaining my case. He explicitly asked me that "In case you are not holding PUC, Law has provision to produce it with in 7 day from the day
we get challan and on producing it you have to just pay Rs 100/-" I got relief and told him that "No one in police station is listening to me". On this he
did not assured me to get things right by talking to concern Police station, rather asked me to appear in court and also told me that I need to have lawyer
and need to pay lawyer fees. This was so disgusting. In short, he was indirectly asking me to pay Rs 1000/-

As a last shot, I emailed to Commissioner explaining the scenario and asking him to reply in written to pay Rs 1000/- By end of the day I got reply from him
that, he has talked to concern PI and I can go to police station and collect my liscence.

Next, day when I went to police station it was quite different experience than what we usually see. constable asked me to have sit and offered tea. I was given
some personal attention.The same police Inspector was quite friendly. I paid Rs 100/- and got my liscence back. The constables were asking me "How do I know
Traffic Police Commissioner?" :))

The bottom line is, Traffic police ask you to pay very high penalty amount, just to get bribe from you. When they ask to pay Rs 1000/- fine people settle down
with bribe of around Rs 200/- something, although actual penalty amount is only Rs 100/- only :))
The second point is we need to escalate to the highest authority we do not get justice. And most of the time people either afraid of to contact higher authority
officer or think it will not be modest to go to them for such small issue and end up paying Rs 1000/-

This is how police loot common man.


Below link will help you to know offense and penalty:
http://www.trafficpolicemumbai.org/offences%20list.pdf