Greeva Garg –
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court of India seeking amendments in the Road Rules.
To safeguard the lives of people on roads, the plea sought directions to the Centre by the Supreme Court for making road rule violation a non-bailable offence.
The plea also prays for reduction of vehicle density on roads by the way of limiting two vehicles to be owned by a family.
The petitioner, Shrikant Prasad moved this plea, referring to the information obtained from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, portals and RTI applications.
“Road accidents continue to be a leading cause of death, disabilities and hospitalization in the country despite our commitment and efforts. India ranks first in the number of road accident deaths across the 199 countries and accounts for almost 11% of the accident-related deaths in the World,” the plea stated.
Suggesting the amendments in the plea, the petitioner submitted that, “Amendment in section 279 and 337, 338 of the Indian Penal Code to make this offense non bailable. As the number of road accidents are increasing day by day across the country due to the increasing number of vehicles and rash driving, to curb the accidents the law must be made with few deterrent effects so there is no fear in the mind of the offender.”
For strict implementation of the laws to avoid road accidents, amendments are a must. In this view petitioner referred to the cases of Abdul sharif vs Haryana and State of Punjab vs Saurabh Bakshi where Supreme Court held that 304A of Indian Penal Code (IPC) should be revisited and be amended with harsher punishments.
Also read: Quint files plea against new IT rules in Delhi High Court