Supreme Court to Lawmakers: Stricter Punishment for Negligent Drivers is a Must

India's rendezvous with incidents related to reckless driving and the consequent 'slap-on-the-wrist' kind of punishments that come the accused's way have long frustrated the country, especially the ones who suffer the brunt of another's carelessness. The alarming rate at which cases of negligent driving have been growing hasn't gone unnoticed, for the Supreme Court, on Monday, urged lawmakers to work on ironclad laws along with strident punishment in cases of death due to rash and negligent driving.

A bench led by Justice Dipak Misra highlighted that the IPC's Section 304A, which dictates a maximum punishment of 2 years in jail with fine, may not be enough to discourage reckless driving.

The judges said, "There is a nonchalant attitude among the drivers. They feel that they are the 'Emperors of all they survey'." They went on to add, "Drunkenness contributes to careless driving where the other people become their prey. The poor feel that their lives are not safe, the pedestrians think of uncertainty and the civilised persons drive in constant fear but still apprehensive about the obnoxious attitude of the people who project themselves as larger than life. In such obtaining circumstances, we are bound to observe that the lawmakers should scrutinize, re-look and re-visit the sentencing policy in Section 304A, IPC . We say so with immense anguish."

Last year, the government proposed the new Motor Vehicle Act, which envisages hefty penalties, among other measures to act as a deterrant for traffic related offences. Intelligent speed adaptation, driver alert control and eye drowsiness detectors are some of the features proposed in new Motor Bill that seeks to prevent at least 2 lakh road accident deaths in next five years through hefty penalties and jail-terms. The ambitious 'vision' is to reduce road fatalities by 20 per cent annually as part of the draft Road Transport & Safety Bill 2014, concerned over an alarming 1.38 lakh road accident deaths, the highest in the world.