Speeding does not necessarily imply rash, negligent driving: Bombay HC
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A person driving his vehicle at high speed cannot ipso facto be tried for ‘rash and negligent driving’, the Bombay High Court has held.
The court made the observation while hearing the Maharashtra government’s application to overturn the acquittal of a driver who was accused of running his vehicle over a woman’s legs.
“Criminal rashness is a dangerous act with the knowledge that it is so and that it may cause injury, but without intention to cause injury or knowledge that it will be probably caused,” TOI quoted Justice Prakash Naik saying.
“The fact that the accused was merely driving at a high speed cannot attract Section 279 of the IPC (rash and negligent driving),” he stated.
“The fact that a vehicle is driven in speed or that a vehicle is not driven in speed, cannot by itself without judging the situation in which the driver had been placed, be a factor to determine the rashness or negligence. High speed may not, in each case, be sufficient to hold that the driver is rash or negligent,” the judge added.
Justice Naik also dismissed the case on the grounds that the prosecution had adequately failed to prove the charges.
“In fact, in the present case, it is not established that the driver was, in such a high speed, driving in reckless manner or that he was rash or negligent,” he concluded.
The incident took place near Mahakali temple in 1995, when the accused, Suresh Mule, ran over the victim. Following which, doctors had to amputate her left leg.
