Supreme Court: Stating that Section 304-A IPC should be revisited so that higher punishment can be provided, the Court asked the Attorney General for India to assist the Court on this score.
The Court quoted the ruling of the Court in State of Punjab v. Saurabh Bakshi, (2015) 5 SCC 182, where it was noticed that “India has a disreputable record of road accidents. There is a nonchalant attitude among the drivers. They feel that they are the “Emperors of all they survey”. 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 civilized 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 scrutinise, relook and revisit the sentencing policy in Section 304-A IPC.”
The Bench of Dipak Misra and C. Nagappan, JJ was hence of the opinion that punishment provided under Section 304-A is absolutely inadequate and listed the matter on 30.08.2016. [Abdul Sharif v. State of Haryana, 2016 SCC OnLine SC 865, order dated 26.08.2016]
