Adopt zero tolerance for those who drink and drive: Bombay High Court

“Mere presence of alcohol in the blood should, in our view, be sufficient to disentitle a person from driving. In itself, this would facilitate the work of the police and go a long way to ensuring safety on our roads, apart from lessening the forensic burden on enforcement agencies,” said Justices A S Oka and Gautam Patel in their judgment.

The hit-and-run incident of 2002 involving actor Salman Khan had prompted journalist Nikhil Wagle to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a stricter action. Later, the ambit of the PIL was widened with the court insisting on the nuances of investigation in such cases.

Noting that there were over 700 cases of drink-driving this new year, the HC found nothing that showed a certain quantity of alcohol could be considered “safe”. “There is, in fact, no reason why any person who had any amount to drink should be permitted to drive at all,” asserted the court.

Crowded roads, chaotic pedestrian movements, inadequate sidewalks coupled with general indiscipline and indifference to traffic rules were enough for the court to discern that drunken driving was all the more dangerous. “And the fact too, that our roads and such few sidewalks exist are used by hawkers during the day and by the poorest of the poor at night,” said the judges.

Therefore, the argument of drinking being a fundamental right, the court said, did not hold water. “Even the most minimal impairment,” the continued, “ caused by alcohol might have the most disastrous consequence.” Licences have to be impounded immediately after the incident, and for that, suggested the HC, the police and the licensing authority should work in tandem. The state government, as a result, has been asked to provide details of all such cases in the past three years wherein licences were canceled in Mumbai and other municipal corporations.

Besides, the state government will also have to inform on the adequacy of breath analysers and the number of such available, functioning devices. Both government were asked to inform on the next occasion if they intend to frame rules or guildelines for carrying out breath tests and blood sampling.

It further directed, “The state government shall also state whether or not it intends to set up forensic labs at every government hospital including the district/civil/cottage hospitals as well as selected primary health centers near major state and national highways for testing of blood samples. The state government shall also state if it intends to provide mobile forensic labs.”

aamir.khan@expressindia.com