Monday, July 9, 2012

Chennai’s Legal 'Peg' To Drunken Driving

By Sanjay Pinto

When you drive past Chennai especially on weekends a little before the earlier Cinderella hour of 11 pm, you may end up remembering that song ‘Every Breath You Take…’ by the Police. Seeing is remembering! The sight of motorists asked to blow into breath analysers or right into the faces of traffic cops to detect drunkenness is hard to miss. Those who fail the test are bundled into police vans and taken to the nearest Govt hospital for a blood test. Anyone with more than 30 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood is certified to be ‘under the influence of alcohol’ and booked for drunken driving. All along, this meant a fine of two thousand rupees. Not anymore. A mobile court in the city recently sentenced 5 offenders to simple imprisonment for 15 days.  

The punishment has sent Chennaiites into a tizzy and is being seen as a form of judicial activism. The magistrates have merely used a bottled up provision in Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act which prescribes imprisonment upto 6 months and/or a fine and if repeated within 3 years, an enhanced penalty of  a 2 year jail term and/or  a  fine of three thousand rupees. 

Is this a deterrent or draconian?  Aasim Shehzad, a criminal lawyer in the Madras High Court, is convinced that “ the trauma that goes with a jail term, whatever be the period, even if it is for 1 day, is far more deterrent than just coughing up a fine of two thousand rupees.” 

Divya, a college student disagrees. “Taking away a person’s liberty is serious. Taking away the driving licence is simpler.” The proposal to suspend or cancel licences of errant motorists ran into rough weather in Chennai. Divya adds “How can we rule out harassment or extortion by cops when the punishment is so severe? And how equipped are they to check drunkenness?” The 67 traffic police stations in the city all have breath analysers. But is that enough to keep pace with the vehicle explosion? 

Interestingly,  this new measure almost coincides with the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau that flags Chennai as the city with the most unsafe roads and the highest fatal accidents. And there is no sign of last year’s 1513 deaths on the roads coming down. The last 6 months have already seen more than 700 fatalities. 

If that is not alarming enough, consider this. The Tamilnadu Government has decided to allow bars in 5 star hotels in Chennai and Tiruchirapalli, which have international  airports, to remain open round the clock on payment of an annual privilege fee that  now stands at 16 lakh rupees. Similar leeway in 5 star hotels in Madurai and Coimbatore would attract double the privilege fee. Pubs in other places which earlier had to strictly play the last song or serve the last drink at 10 minutes to 11 pm or face the police music, have an extra hour till midnight. On condition of anonymity, a General Manager of a leading 5 star hotel in Chennai says “the extended timing will actually bring down the prevalence of drunken driving as it will obviate binge drinking while looking at the watch!”  

The ‘drink and driver’ service offered by a few star hotels seems to have fizzled out. Dr.Manoj Beno, Medical Director of Billroth Hospitals and a regular face in the city’s party circuit, rues “in other countries, a call taxi or cab service at odd hours is very strong and reliable. Here it isn’t.” 

Just how can we forget the Tamilnadu Government owned and run TASMAC (Tamilnadu State Marketing Corporation) liquor retail shops? The State has a monopoly over the wholesale and retail vending of alcohol, through its 6823 outlets. TASMAC’s net income in 2010-11 is a staggering 14,965 crore; an almost 20 per cent jump every year.

(Source: TASMAC)

An official from the Excise Department reveals that “the revenue from alcohol sales is almost half of the State’s annual tax revenues.” 

Is it any surprise that the brisk sale of booze has led to a corresponding ‘steady’ spike in the incidence of drunken driving in the city? In 2010, 12,335 cases of drunken driving were registered by the traffic police. It went up to 16,538 cases in 2011. In the last 6 months alone, that figure stands at 9718. 

(Source: Chennai City Traffic Police)  

The devil may be in the drink but also in the interpretation. Sanjay Arora, Additional Commissioner Of Police (Traffic) Chennai says “more cases mean stricter enforcement.” 

 8197 people in Chennai were injured in accidents last year; 4027 so far this year. But there are no reports to pin point how many drunken driving cases lead to accidents; even if they are not fatal or result in injuries. Sources also reveal a big factor that results in under reporting of drunken driving cases. As the offence is an exclusion in an insurance claim (as drunken driving is not considered an accident in insurance parlance), in order to help victims and accused persons, some government doctors do not stamp blood samples with the drunken seal and the traffic investigation officials too stop short of registering a drunken driving case.  

Usha, a mother of two young women, feels that “even if it doesn’t have a salutary effect on driving, jail terms will probably make people behave as many often create a scene at TASMAC shops after a swig.” 

Incidentally, in February this year, Justice K.Chandru of the Madras High Court had ordered the closure of quite a few TASMAC shops in the vicinity of schools or places of worship. The judiciary to the rescue again.

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