Ministry to drop Yechury panel’s proposals on strict traffic rules

With the Left no longer supporting the Government, some strong recommendations made by the Sitaram Yechury-led Parliamentary Committee on Transport...

With the Left no longer supporting the Government, some strong recommendations made by the Sitaram Yechury-led Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture on tightening traffic rules are set to be dropped. The committee had submitted its recommendations on the amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA) during the last Parliament session and called for invoking the culpable homicide provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against drunken driving. The Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways has now decided not to implement the ‘harsh’ measures proposed by the Left leader and plans to apply penalties outlined in the MVA. What, however, has got the green signal from the ministry is the proposal to prosecute drunken driving depending on alcohol level.

The committee had recommended that death due to drunken driving should be treated as ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’ under Section 304 of the IPC and not mere ‘negligence’. It further suggested that the act of a drunken driver committing an accident should be treated as a ‘premeditated commitment of a crime’ and the offender should be punishable under relevant section of the IPC depending on the consequences of the accident. This could invite imprisonment ranging from two to seven years to a lifer as well.

The ministry, however, says that the committee’s view is rather ‘harsh’ in view of the fact that there is still no proper accident investigation conducted in the country.

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“The fact is that accidents are caused by various things. Though driver’s fault is said to account for maximum road accidents and road fatalities in India, the truth is that there is never a proper road crash investigation done to help establish actual cause of accident which may range from the driver’s fault to mechanical defects in the vehicles, to an errant pedestrian or even road engineering faults. The committee wants to attribute ‘criminal intent’ to the accidents caused by drunken driving but how will this criminality be established?” asks an official.

“Accordingly, it has been decided that as provided under sections 177-186 of the MVA, we will propose six months imprisonment and Rs 10,000 fine in case of drunken driving and accidents causing death. Also the Law Ministry had no problems with application of these rules,” said a senior official.

The ministry, however, does plan to accept the other suggestion of the committee to prosecute the offence of drunken driving according to the alcohol level found in the offender’s blood. The committee had suggested that while 30-60 mg alcohol in 100 ml of blood should incur a penalty of Rs 2,000, up to 150 mg alcohol should get a fine of Rs 4,000 and above that Rs 5,000 and imprisonment with provisions to cancel driving licences. On-the- spot suspension of driving licences for three months for drunken driving was also proposed.