LegalCrystal – Blog

Upper and Lower Age Limit for the issue of Driver’s License in India

Posted by Rekha PrasadcloseAuthor: Rekha Prasad Name: Rekha Prasad
Email: rekha@legalcrystal.com
Site: http://www.legalcrystal.com/blog/wp-admin
About: High Court Advocate, Author at LegalCrystal-Blog, Mobile : +919480117568See Authors Posts (114) under Motor Vehicle Act

[News you can use]

NEW DRIVING NORMS IN THE COUNTRY! – 16 YEAR OLD’s MAY NOT GET THE DRIVING LICENSE! ALSO THOSE OVER 75!

New Delhi: The Government is putting final touches to a major overhaul of driving norms in the country which includes putting an upper age limit on people eligible to drive and making training from recognized driving schools mandatory for applicants wanting a drivers license.

Officials said the new norms will transform the drivers license from being a proof of identity to a proof of skill. The exercise is aimed at reducing road accidents in the country by making sure that only qualified people take to the wheel. Around 1.14 lakh people die on the roads in India, more than anywhere else in the world.

The government has proposed to fix an upper age limit for people eligible to drive. The proposed changes to the Motor Vehicle Act will also include defining the maximum speed limit on highways. The changes are expected to be finalized by March.

The new norms, being devised by an expert committee set up by the ministry of road transport and highways, is weighing the option of barring people who are over 72-75 years old from getting a driving license. The move, which is still under consideration, is likely to impact many active senior citizens who drive their own vehicles.

The committee has also proposed not giving licenses to 16 and 17 year olds, who, under the current rules, are eligible to ride mopeds.

Another major impact of the proposals would be on small-time driving schools, which could become a thing of the past. Officials said that state transport departments could be bifurcated to ensure that only people with proper training get the licenses. One agency will be responsible for training of drivers and the other will deal with issuing licenses. We are looking into the suggestion of experts in this field to have recognized driving institutes with infrastructure in every state. In small states, there can be one training school and in bigger ones, there can be two such training schools, an official said. These model training schools will mandatorily train all aspiring drivers in the region.

**Dear Readers, kindly share your views also on the above proposal!

In my view: life of the common man should not be made so complicated with unnecessary imposition of new rules of this nature. Because biologically each individual physical/reflux capacity is different. It can be monitored by periodical tests and renewal of licenses.

These rules may be made mandatory to HTV vehicles, Public transport buses and Hire Cars/Vans /Goods vehicles etc. But an average citizen who rides a moped or his own car will be very badly affected by all these stringent rules and regulations.

Instead of making all these foolish and troublesome changes, solution would be making periodical checks/renewals of riders license mandatory and thereby cancelling a particular individuals license if he is not physically/mentally or habit wise[drunkard] not qualified to drive a vehicle.

Due to these rules, old people who are fit/ hale and hearty even after 75 will forcibly become dependents and college-goers attending colleges/tuitions and other skill development classes will find it difficult to manage time and will be badly affected by this.

Definitely, this is not at all a right move from the point of view of an average citizen as an independant individual.

**