A person caught driving under the influence of alcohol may not be allowed to drive his car back home after the police have completed the formalities of registering a case against him.
A person caught driving under the influence of alcohol may not be allowed to drive his car back home after the police have completed the formalities of registering a case against him. The Bombay high court said on Monday that the police commissioner should issue a circular, asking the cops to seize vehicles of people caught for drunken driving immediately after they have been booked.
Justice BR Gavai refused to grant interim relief to businessman Nikhil Kisnani, who had his original driving licence seized following a drunken driving offence in 2008. It means that proceedings against Kisnani will go ahead in a magistrate’s court, and the accused will have to wait for some more time before he gets his license back. “Taking into consideration the menace in the society, interim relief cannot be granted,” the court said.
The Worli traffic police impounded Kisnani’s licence in December 2008. He was granted a temporary licence, which has to be renewed from time to time.
Kisnani had moved the high court, challenging the traffic police’s method of dealing with drunken driving cases. He had petitioned the court to stay the proceedings against him in the trial court. His grouse was that drunken driving cases were being heard by judicial clerks acting as magistrates in morning courts.
Representing Kisnani, senior counsel Shirish Gupte and advocate HK Prem said, “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, have been appointed special magistrates in the morning courts.”
Gupte pointed out to the judge that the police had actually allowed his client to drive back home in his vehicle after he had been booked. “They arrested him for drunken driving, and then allowed him to drive back home,” Gupte said.
“That is the only mistake they (cops) did,” Gavai said. He then suggested that the vehicles of the offenders should be seized immediately.
Public Prosecutor PA Pol and additional public prosecutor Alpa Javeri defended the procedure adopted by the state. “An accused in a drunken driving case is not arrested. He is immediately let off on bail,” Javeri said. “Fine is collected from him as a bail bond to safeguard the case.”
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