1. Home
2. Opinion

NEED TO ENHANCE PUNISHMENT U/S 304-A IPC

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 10/21/2020 10:35:24 AM

MAHADEEP SINGH JAMWAL Article 21 of the Constitution of India, 1950 provides that, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.” Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person. The right to life is undoubtedly the most fundamental of all rights. All other rights add quality to the life in question and depend on the pre-existence of life itself for their operation. When a person is deprived of this right, the action of the man depriving someone of his life is construed as an offence under Indian Penal Code. Various sophisticated terms like murder, death, homicide, culpable homicide, etc are confusing for a common man about the difference between these terms. Legally we pronounce murder as ‘the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another’. Homicide is a general term for killing and may refer to a noncriminal act as well as the criminal act. All legal systems make important distinctions between different types of homicide, and punishments vary greatly according to the intent of the killer, the dangerousness of the killer’s conduct, and the circumstances of the act. Culpable homicide (sections 299) is punishable u/s 304 of IPC & murder (Section 300) punishable u/s 302 of Indian Penal Code. The original Indian Penal Code 1860 have no provision of section 304-A (causing the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide). The section 304-A was inserted in the code in 1870 by Indian Code (Amendment) Act, 1870. This section does not created a new offence but was directed towards the offences which fall outside the range of section 299 and 300 of IPC. The term rash classifies the various events and acts in road accidents, mishandling of hazardous materials or lethal weapons etc. while the term ‘negligent’ can be associated with the acts of professionals like medical practioners or pharmacists etc. The offence u/s 304- A attracts punishment as imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both. It was felt that up to two years punishment (Maximum) for causing the death of a person by rash & negligent act was not enough for such an offence and to revisit the quantum of punishment was needed. Going back to the year 2007, the Apex Court favored amending the Section 304-A IPC to enhance the punishment of two-year imprisonment for rash or negligent driving. If we look into the inventory of various bills introduced in the Parliament some attempt has been made to enhance the punishment u/s 304-A IPC. A bill on 30th November 2007 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha proposing “imprisonment up to three years and fine up to one lakh rupees”. This bill also proposed to make the section nonbail able. The bill failed to achieve the results. As such on 24th April 2015, another Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha, where it proposed punishment of “up to 5 years imprisonment or with fine not less than 50,000 or with both”, but it also met the same fate as that of 2007 bill. In the year 2016, while it was hearing a petition on the issue regarding death by negligent act, the Supreme Court observation came terming the existing quantum of punishment for causing death by rash or negligent act, as "absolutely inadequate". Parliament was requested for making the punishment harsher for the offence under section 304-A (causing death by rash or negligent act) of the IPC. The Apex court also observed that “in addition to the devastating human toll, the economic impact of road crashes is also enormous, many of those injured or killed are wage earners, leaving their families destitute and without means of support.” The court further said “human toll in such accidents is tragic. Survivors and family members are affected not only by an immediate death or disability, but also lifetime psychological and physical suffering. Crashes often result in orphans, and some victims, as young as infants, spend the rest of their lives with medical facilities”. On 25th October 2016, another bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha proposing punishment of “up to 10 years imprisonment and with fine up to 5 lakhs”. In the year 2018, it was submitted before the Apex Court by the Central Government that it has already proposed to amend the IPC and Section 304-AA is being introduced, after obtaining necessary comments from the State Governments, and the matter was referred to the Law Commission of India for its recommendation. On 4th June 2019, yet another bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha proposing punishment of “up to seven years imprisonment or fine not less than 75,000 or both”. Nevertheless, these bills remained on paper and did not enter the statute book. On one hand, the Government, for one reason or the other, have not been able to carry out amendment in Section 304-A for decades. It is interesting to see that the bill of 2019 proposed “imprisonment or fine (up to 75,000)” while the earlier bills of 2007 and 2016 proposed “imprisonment and fine”. This way the provision of punishment of “imprisonment or fine” as purposed in the bill of 2019 in no way a harsher punishment as expected by Supreme Court. This design of sentencing, where we see over 1.5 lakh deaths each year due to negligence, seems nowhere to be adequate. We are bound to observe that the lawmakers should scrutinize, relook and revisit the sentencing policy in Section 304-A IPC. In the run up the issue of deaths due to negligence seems to have lost its place. The Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, 2019 was brought in whereby monetary penalties have been enhanced. It is to be seen, how much such monetary enhanced penalties act as a deterrence for the drivers behind the steering wheel who many a times belong to affluent families. Time has come to relook Section 304-A of the IPC urgently in letter and spirit.