Traffic Offences (Special Courts) Ordinance, 1981

The Traffic Offences (Special Courts) Ordinance, 1981 sets up dedicated Special Courts to handle traffic cases quickly, taking them out of the regular court system. Section 2 defines a "traffic offence" as any offence punishable under the Provincial Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1965.

Section 3 lets the Provincial Government establish a Special Court, by Gazette notification, for all or part of a province, staffed by a local dignitary, a member of a local council, an advocate with at least five years' standing, or a serving Magistrate, on terms and conditions the Provincial Government sets. The Special Court sits wherever the Provincial Government directs, has all the powers of a first-class Magistrate under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, and follows the ordinary Magistrate trial procedure — with the prosecutor treated as a Public Prosecutor. A later 1982 amendment (Section 5A) also lets a Special Court try a traffic offence summarily.

Section 4 makes traffic offences exclusively triable by a Special Court once one is set up (overriding both the Cr.P.C. and the Motor Vehicles Ordinance's normal court arrangements), though if the Court finds during trial that an alleged offence is not actually a traffic offence, it records that finding and only tries the traffic-offence part.

Section 5 automatically transfers pending traffic cases to a newly constituted Special Court, without needing to recall witnesses who already testified. Section 6 allows an appeal to the Court of Session, except for summary convictions where the fine does not exceed two thousand rupees (added by the 1982 amendment). Section 7 gives the Provincial Government rule-making power.