Section 178 — Penalty for travelling without pass or ticket and for dereliction of duty on the part of conductor and refusal to ply contract carriage, etc

(1) Whoever travels in a stage carriage without having a proper pass or ticket with him or being in or having alighted from a stage carriage fails or refuses to present for examination or to deliver up his pass or ticket immediately on a requisition being made therefor, shall be [liable for a penalty] which may extend to five hundred rupees. Explanation.—In this section, “pass” and “ticket” have the meanings respectively assigned to them in section 124. (2) If the conductor of a stage carriage, or the driver of a stage carriage performing the functions of a conductor in such stage carriage, whose duty is— (a) to supply a ticket to a person travelling in a stage carriage on payment of fare by such person, either wilfully or negligently,— (i) fails or refuses to accept the fare when tendered, or (ii) fails or refuses to supply a ticket, or (iii) supplies an invalid ticket, or (iv) supplies a ticket of a lesser value, or (b) to check any pass or ticket, either wilfully or negligently fails or refuses to do so, he shall be [liable for a penalty] which may extend to five hundred rupees. (3) If the holder of a permit or the driver of a contract carriage [while being on duty] refuses, in contravention of the provisions of this Act or rules made thereunder, to ply the contract carriage or to carry the passengers, he shall,— (a) in the case of two-wheeled or three-wheeled motor vehicles, be [liable for a penalty] which may extend to fifty rupees; and (b) in any other case, be [liable for a penalty] which may extend to [five hundred rupees].