Traffic police fines Mumbai man for offering ‘lift to strangers’ stranded in rains; viral FB post starts debate online

While Nitin Nair was fined under the law, which deals with using private vehicles for transportation without the requisite permit, he highlights how some apps openly run their business based on the same principal – charging fee by giving lifts.

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The Mumbai techie shared his experience online to make car owners aware of this “unknown law”. (Source: Nitin Nair/ Facebook)

Incessant rains in Mumbai led to water-logging across the city and disrupted both road and rail traffic. The rains, recorded as the season’s highest, claimed three lives in the city and its adjoining areas. Commuters were seen stranded in many parts of the city. Amidst all the chaos, one man decided to help stranded commuters. But his ‘good deed’ was seen as an illegal act by the Mumbai traffic police and he was penalised.

Nitin Nair was on his way to office when he spotted an elderly man and two others marooned in heavy showers. Nair offered them a lift since they all were going to the same direction. But a traffic police confiscated his license for giving lift to “unknown people”. Not only did he pay a fine of Rs 1,500 to get back his license, he had to go to court and “accept” his mistake. Feeling “pathetic” about the entire ordeal, he took to Facebook and explained how baffled he was to know that it is illegal to offer lifts to strangers – a law that most vehicle owners might not be aware of. The post is now going viral creating a huge debate online.

“The moment they got in and I started the car, one traffic police officer in a towing vehicle waylaid me and asked me to show him my license,” he wrote in his post. He initially thought his car was parked at a no parking zone and hence the cop intervened. But the cop said, “It is illegal to give a lift to unknown people”.

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Talking to the indianexpress.com, the 32-year-old IT professional said, “My only intention of writing that post was to make car owners aware of this law… As I’m sure most of them like me are unaware of such a law.”

Nair was charged under Section 66(1) read with 192(a) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which clearly prohibits using of private vehicle for commercial use. The incident occurred near Airoli Circle, a place where it is not uncommon for people to find car owners giving lifts in private transport for a fee. “The cop did not ask them [passengers] anything,” Nair told indianexpress.com.

Read the full post here:

While Nair was fined under the law, which deals with using private vehicles for transportation without the requisite permit, he highlights how some apps openly run their business based on the same principle – charging fee by giving lifts. He wonders how such services “openly promote their app where unknown people can get a lift for a charge in a private vehicle,” while people like him were fined for the same.

“I probably might not give lift to strangers in future but will definitely help an accident victim or in emergency situation like heavy rains,” he said.

Here how people on Facebook reacted to it:

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