Punjab Driving Licence Penalty Points: Over 20 in a Year Means a 6 Month Ban
Punjab now adds 1 to 4 penalty points per traffic ticket. Go over 20 in a year and your licence is disqualified for 6 months. Points for every offence inside.
Punjab now adds penalty points to a driver's record for every traffic ticket, on top of the fine. Speeding, wrong way driving and driving without a licence each carry 4 points. If your points go above 20 within one year, the licensing authority must disqualify you from holding a licence for six months, and it can extend that by another six.
We read this in the Provincial Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1965 as published on the Punjab Code, the provincial government's own statute site. The points rule sits in section 116-A. The list of offences and points is the Twelfth Schedule. Both were put in by the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Second Amendment) Act 2026, published in the Punjab Gazette on 7 May 2026.
So this is enacted law, not a proposal. What we could not find is any public page where a driver can check his own points total. That gap matters, and we come back to it below.
How the Punjab penalty points system works
Every ticket issued under the Twelfth Schedule carries a fine and a set number of points, from 1 to 4. The points build up on your record. If they go over 20 within a one year period, the licensing authority issues an order disqualifying you for six months.
The law's exact words are that when points "accumulated within a one-year period, exceed twenty", the licensing authority "shall issue an order disqualifying the accused from holding or obtaining a license for a six-month period, extendable for another six months". "Shall" means the authority has no choice once you cross the line.
Note the word "exceed". Twenty points on the dot does not trigger it. Twenty one does. In practice that is six serious tickets, or a long run of small ones.
Two more rules sit next to it in section 116-A:
- Repeat offence within a month: the fine goes up by five per cent of the previous fine, for each repeat.
- Losing in court: if you contest a ticket and the court finds you guilty, the fine is doubled.
Points for each traffic offence in Punjab
The heaviest offences carry 4 points: speeding, wrong way driving, reckless driving, driving without a licence, an unregistered vehicle, underage driving, no fitness certificate and overwidth loads. Signal jumping and a hand-held phone carry 3. Parking and lane offences carry 1.
The table shows the points from the law and the fine for an ordinary car under 2,000cc. We give two fine columns on purpose. The Punjab Code's copy of the Twelfth Schedule and the Punjab Traffic Police's own offences and penalties page do not match on several fines. The points appear only in the Punjab Code text.
| Offence | Points | Car fine, Punjab Code | Car fine, Traffic Police page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exceeding the speed limit | 4 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Driving on the wrong side of the road | 4 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Reckless and negligent driving | 4 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Driving without a driving licence | 4 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Driving an unregistered vehicle | 4 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Driving under the age limit | 4 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Signal violation, electronic or manual | 3 | Rs 3,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Hand-held mobile phone while driving | 3 | Rs 3,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Fabricated number plate | 3 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 5,000, for no security plate |
| Tinted or covered glass | 2 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Seat belt not fastened | 2 | Rs 2,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Obstructing traffic | 2 | Rs 3,000 | Rs 5,000 |
| Excessive smoke | 2 | Rs 3,000 | Rs 3,000 |
| Line, lane or zebra crossing violation | 1 | Rs 2,000 | Rs 3,000 |
| Pressure or musical horn, or horn in a silence zone | 1 | Rs 2,000 | Rs 2,000 |
| Parking violation | 1 | Rs 3,000 | Rs 5,000 |
Motorcyclists get points too. No helmet is 2 points and a Rs 2,000 fine in both sources. Three people on one bike is 1 point and Rs 2,000. Speeding on a bike is 4 points, the same as in a car.
Where the fines differ, the Traffic Police page is usually higher. The ticket you are handed or sent will state the amount, and that is what you pay. The points, as far as the law goes, do not depend on which fine list is used.
What happens when a Punjab licence is disqualified
You must hand your licence to the licensing authority straight away, and it keeps the licence until the disqualification ends. The order is made under section 16 of the Ordinance. You can appeal within 30 days of receiving it.
Section 16 also says a person can be disqualified only "after giving him an opportunity of being heard". So a hearing comes before the order, not after it. Go to it. Bring your tickets, your payment receipts and anything showing a ticket was wrongly issued.
- Read the order and note the date you received it. The 30 day appeal clock starts then.
- Surrender your licence to the licensing authority, as section 16(2) requires.
- File an appeal with the prescribed appellate authority within 30 days if you think the order is wrong.
- Do not drive during the disqualification. Driving without a licence is itself a 4 point, Rs 5,000 offence.
- Collect your licence when the period ends. The online licence check is a quick way to confirm its status afterwards.
If disqualification orders are made against the same person more than once, section 16(1A) lets the authority cancel the licence outright. At that point you are starting again from a learner licence in Punjab, with the test and the wait that come with it.
How e-tickets and payment deadlines work in Punjab
A ticket written at the roadside must be paid within 10 days. A camera e-ticket from the Punjab Safe Cities Authority is sent to the registered owner within seven days, and the owner has 15 days to contest it. After that, unpaid fines are linked to the vehicle's registration with a 10 per cent surcharge.
If the fine is still unpaid, the vehicle can be impounded until the full amount is cleared. Once it is impounded, the fine grows by a further 10 per cent a month after 30 working days. The Punjab e-challan check by CNIC or number plate shows what is outstanding against a vehicle.
One point here is ours rather than the law's. A camera ticket goes to the vehicle's owner, not necessarily the driver. The law does not say how points reach the right driver's licence in that case. If you lend your car, that question could land on you.
Be careful with messages about tickets. A text asking you to pay through a link is the pattern behind the fake e-challan SMS scam, and no official channel asks for card details that way.
What we could not confirm about the points system
We found no official page where a driver in Punjab can see his own points total. We also could not confirm how points are carried from a camera ticket to a driver's licence, or that disqualification orders are already being issued.
The law is clear on the rule. How it is run in practice is not published. The Punjab Traffic Police page lists fines but no points column. The rules made under the Ordinance, which would set the method, were not among the documents we could read.
Motorways are a separate system. The National Highways and Motorway Police apply their own federal law, with its own points, as the high beam crackdown on Punjab motorways showed. Points under one law do not appear to feed the other.
Common questions
How many points before a Punjab driving licence is suspended?
More than 20 points within one year. The licensing authority must then disqualify you for six months, extendable by six more.
How many points is a speeding ticket in Punjab?
Four points, plus a fine. For a car under 2,000cc both official sources put the fine at Rs 5,000.
Do points go away in Punjab?
The law counts points "accumulated within a one-year period". It does not spell out how older points drop off, so we cannot say more than that.
Can I check my driving licence points online in Punjab?
Not that we could find. No official page we checked shows a points balance.
Can I appeal a Punjab licence disqualification?
Yes. Section 16(3) allows an appeal to the prescribed authority within 30 days of receiving the order. That authority's decision is final.
Is the Punjab points system law or just a proposal?
It is law. It was added by the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Second Amendment) Act 2026, published in the Punjab Gazette on 7 May 2026.
How we verified this
What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.
Last checked 28 September 2026. The points rule in section 116-A(5-A) and (5-B), the repeat offence and double fine rules, the 10 day, seven day and 15 day time limits, the 10 per cent surcharges and impounding, and every points figure in the Twelfth Schedule are from the Provincial Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1965 as consolidated on the Punjab Code, whose footnotes credit the changes to the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Second Amendment) Act 2026, Punjab Gazette of 7 May 2026, and earlier amending Acts. The hearing, surrender, appeal and cancellation rules are from section 16 of the same text. The second fine column is from the Punjab Traffic Police offences and penalties page, which is undated and has no points column. The two sources disagree on several fines, and we have shown both rather than pick one. We could not find a public points lookup, the rules that set how points are recorded, or any published figure for disqualifications issued so far.
About the author
Senior Writer, Public Services and Technology
Shahid joined us in 2024 as an author. He is a senior contributor to Pakistan's leading technology websites. He writes detailed articles, mostly covering his expertise in the latest tech, mobiles, apps, gadgets, and step-by-step guides. His ideology is to help people understand the latest trends and explain complex methods through very easy-to-understand guides.
