Wearing rear seat belt mandatory in Mumbai from Nov 1

Wearing seat belts will become compulsory for all passengers travelling in a car in Mumbai 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.

In its notification, the Mumbai Police said that whoever drives a motor vehicle without wearing a safety belt or carries passengers not wearing seat belts shall be punishable.

"All motor vehicle drivers and all commuters in vehicles, whoever travels on the road of Mumbai City are hereby informed that, it will be mandatory for drivers and all passengers to wear seat belts while traveling from 01/11/2022. Otherwise, action will be taken under section 194(B)(1) of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019," the notification read.

The Mumbai Traffic Police had given time to all vehicle owners who did not have seat-belt facility in their vehicles to get it installed by October 31.

This comes weeks after the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highway issued draft rules which propose to make it mandatory for carmakers to install an alarm system for seat belts in the backseat of cars.

Safety-belt reminder means a system dedicated to alerting the driver when driver, co-driver and all other front-facing seat occupants do not use the safety-belt, according to the draft rules. This includes a first level warning, a visual warning activated when the ignition switch is engaged and the driver's and/or co-driver’s front facing seat occupants’ safety-belt is not fastened. Second level warning means a visual and audible warning activated when a driver operates a vehicle without fastening of driver and/or co-driver front facing seat occupants’ safety-belt.

After Cyrus Mistry’s death in a car crash earlier this year, Union minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari said there will be a provision to penalise drivers if passengers in the backseat of a car are not wearing seat belts.

While Gadkari didn’t divulge details on the amount of fine that will be imposed for not wearing a seat belt in the rear seats, he said this is a subject in the concurrent list and the amount will differ from state to state.

The Delhi Police too launched a campaign to inform people of the mandatory rule of wearing seat belts in the backseat.

Meanwhile, the central government extended the deadline for mandatory implementation of six airbags in passenger cars by a year to October 01, 2023. The deadline was pushed due to the global supply chain constraints being faced by the auto industry.

As per the Union minister, there is a higher domestic demand for star-rating cars, which are much safer. Gadkari even slammed some auto companies for producing cars in India that are "not up to the standard" but making them of international standards when they are shipped overseas.