Mumbai: Autorickshaw and taxi drivers in Mumbai and across Maharashtra will face licence cancellation if they fail to possess functional knowledge of the Marathi language, announced Maharashtra Transport Minister, Pratap Sarnaik, here on Wednesday. Licencing authorities are empowered to penalise drivers by suspending driver licence authorisation for a maximum of three months upon initial non-compliance and permanently revoking licence authorisation for repeated non-compliance. The Transport Department emphasised that these updates represent amended rules — titled the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Rules, 2026 — rather than a new primary statute (Maharashtra Motor Vehicle Act 2026).