Drunken driving: Maharashtra govt asks Bombay HC to frame rules

The state government wants the Bombay high court to frame guidelines to deal with the rising number of drunken driving cases.

The plea has been made by the deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Nandkumar Chaugule, through an affidavit, in a case in which a 24-year-old businessman has moved the court after the Worli police confiscated his driving license in December 2008, and thereafter refused to return it. The court wanted to know under what provisions of section 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988, was the government acting in such cases.

The petitioner had pointed out that only the high court has the power to appoint magistrates, and not the state government. Judicial clerks, some of whom are not even law graduates, are appointed to the posts of special magistrates for morning courts. “Can a judicial clerk be appointed as a magistrate to try cases which are cognizable offences with minimum punishment of six months?” senior counsel Shirish Gupte and advocate HK Prem had asked.

Chaugule’s affidavit states that the procedure has been laid down after numerous directions issued by the chief metropolitan magistrate and several government notifications issued between July 1996 and October 2000.

To address a common argument taken up by defence lawyers in such cases, that the breathalysers used are faulty, the affidavit says the machine provided by the state government is duly calibrated after every three months, and is certified by the Electronic Research Test Laboratory in New Delhi, and is thus equipment prescribed by the law.

On Tuesday, after additional public prosecutor Alpa Javeri sought time, justice BR Gavai adjourned the hearing for a week.