Lenient laws embolden speed demons, SC tells Parliament
31 March 2015 5:32 AM IST
Taking in view the fact that the lenient jail terms awarded for causing death by rash and negligent driving had proved to be of little deterrence, the Supreme Court on Monday requested Parliament to enhance the punishment by amending the existing provisions to put fear of law among those who drive as “emperors of roads.”
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and PC Pant said non-deterrent punishment provided under Section 304A coupled with leniency shown by courts in awarding jail term has erased the deterrence value of law and made many behave as if they were emperors of road contributing to India’s dubious road accident record. “In such obtaining circumstances, we are bound to observe that the law makers should scrutinise, re-look and re-visit the sentencing policy in Section 304A of IPC. We say so with immense anguish,” said Justice Misra, who authored the judgment for the bench.
A rash and negligent driver, even if he caused death on road, is booked under Section 304A that provides for a maximum of two year sentence with fine. The SC was anguished when it found that one Saurabh Bakshi, who was given one year imprisonment by a Patiala Court for causing death of two on road, was let off by the Punjab and Haryana High Court which reduced his sentence to 24 days in jail, a period the convict had already undergone just because he had compensated the kin of victims.
Allowing the appeal of Punjab government, the bench said result of this leniency and non-deterrent effect of law was there for everyone to see. It said, “There is a nonchalant attitude among drivers. They feel that they are the ‘emperors of all they survey’.”
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and PC Pant said non-deterrent punishment provided under Section 304A coupled with leniency shown by courts in awarding jail term has erased the deterrence value of law and made many behave as if they were emperors of road contributing to India’s dubious road accident record. “In such obtaining circumstances, we are bound to observe that the law makers should scrutinise, re-look and re-visit the sentencing policy in Section 304A of IPC. We say so with immense anguish,” said Justice Misra, who authored the judgment for the bench.
A rash and negligent driver, even if he caused death on road, is booked under Section 304A that provides for a maximum of two year sentence with fine. The SC was anguished when it found that one Saurabh Bakshi, who was given one year imprisonment by a Patiala Court for causing death of two on road, was let off by the Punjab and Haryana High Court which reduced his sentence to 24 days in jail, a period the convict had already undergone just because he had compensated the kin of victims.
Allowing the appeal of Punjab government, the bench said result of this leniency and non-deterrent effect of law was there for everyone to see. It said, “There is a nonchalant attitude among drivers. They feel that they are the ‘emperors of all they survey’.”
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