Supreme Court refuses leniency to man punished for drunken driving

The Supreme Court refused to show leniency to a driver, who was dismissed from service for driving in an inebriated condition, stating that driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol was not only a misconduct, but also an offence.

A Division Bench of Justice MR Shah and Justice BV Nagarathna passed the order on a petition filed by Brijesh Chandra Dwivedi against the Allahabad High Court order, which had upheld his dismissal from service after being found guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol due to which an accident took place.

The Bench observed that an act of driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol and playing with the lives of the others was a very serious misconduct.

Dwivedi was a driver posted at the 12th Battalion, Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) at Fatehpur.While he was on duty driving a truck carrying PAC personnel from Fatehpur to Allahabad, it was involved in a motor accident.
He was charged for having caused the accident by dashing his truck on the back of the jeep while driving under the influence of alcohol.
At the outset, the top court has observed that driving a truck carrying the PAC personnel under the influence of alcohol is a very serious misconduct and such an indiscipline cannot be tolerated, particularly in military.
The employee-appellant argued that since it was a minor accident, which resulted in some loss to the vehicle and considering his 25-year-long service, the order of dismissal was disproportionate to the misconduct proved.
The respondent, however, argued that the punishment for dismissal was not disproportionate since the accused had also been a habitual consumer of alcohol.The Bench clarified that merely because the accident that took place was a minor one, cannot be a ground to show leniency on the employee.The Court was of the view that it was only sheer good luck of the PAC personnel that the accident was not a fatal one.”When the employee was driving a truck carrying the P.A.C. personnel, the lives of those PAC personnel who were travelling in the truck were in the hands of the driver. Therefore, it can be said that he (referring to appellant) played with the lives of those PAC personnel, who were on duty and travelling from Fatehpur to Allahabad on Kumbh Mela duty,” the Bench noted.


However, the Court took into account the statement by the appellant that he had not consumed liquor before driving the vehicle but did so after the accident had taken place to suppress fear.

Though the statement has not been accepted, it could be plausible, the Court opined.

In view of the same and taking into account his long service, the Court said that the punishment of dismissal might be too harsh and converted the same to one of compulsory retirement.

“…the award of punishment of dismissal can be said to be too harsh, the punishment of dismissal is directed to be converted into compulsory retirement of the employee. As the employee has since died, and on converting the punishment of dismissal to that of compulsory retirement, death-cum-retirement benefits as also the benefit of family pension, if any, shall be paid to the legal heirs of the deceased employee in accordance with law and bearing in mind that punishment of dismissal has now been converted into one of compulsory retirement,” the judgment said.

Advocate-on-Record Pallavi Sharma and advocate Manohar Pratap appeared for the appellants. Advocate-on-Record Sanjay Kumar Tyagi and advocate Rajesh Mani Tripathi appeared for the respondents.

The post Supreme Court refuses leniency to man punished for drunken driving appeared first on India Legal.



from India Legal https://ift.tt/32A3CTI

Popular posts from this blog

What Is Solana: A Description, Use Cases, Prospects

Most traders focus on well-known cryptos only, like BTC or Ether. However, today, there are many other blockchain networks that are worth considering. And some of them, for example, Solana, even have ambitions to force current leaders out. Thus, we offer you to get acquainted with this coin without a delay. Solana (SOL) is one of the blockchain platforms created for performing transactions at a high speed and at a cheap price similar to other networks of this kind. Likewise, it can be utilized for trading, paying for diversified goods and services, performing smart contracts, creating NFTs, accessing decentralized financial opportunities, for example, loans, etc. Yet, when one asks the question “ What is Solana? ”, one usually wants to find out if it is worth buying, in the first place. Thus, we must note right away that this network outcompetes other popular platforms both in terms of speed and in terms of costs. To be more precise, it can process 13 deals per second, while Bitcoin ...
Read more

FX Options Trading: Best Online Brokers

Never used options on Forex? Looks like you missed lots of profitable deals. Be sure to learn more about this method and decide whether it suits you. Start by reading our short review for beginners. In the end, we will give you a list of companies that offer the best terms for such trades. Let us start with a short theory about this trading method. In practice, an option is a contract that allows a trader to buy or sell a certain currency at a chosen price and on a chosen date.  FX options trading  is based on forecasts. For example, if a potential buyer believes that the price of a certain currency will grow in the future, he can reserve the right to buy it at a lower price. For this opportunity, one must pay a commission (or a premium). Another crucial point is that executing such deals is optional. When the date agreed comes, one can decide whether it is worth buying or selling the currency chosen. Also Read: Interactive Brokers Fees: An Overview for Potential Users And...
Read more

Crypto Trading Bot: Should You Try It and Which One to Choose

Are you searching for an instrument that will help you trade crypto at minimum risk and time expense, but with maximum earnings? Then, try a trading robot. Find the basic information about this tool and the list of the most reliable and effective products offered by the market. So, such a robot is a program that executes trades involving crypto in an automated mode based on the market situation and parameters set by its user. It can make use of diversified algorithms, patterns, signals provided by other traders, etc. Here are the major benefits such software can offer:   Time economy. A day trader does not have to spend a whole day monitoring the market.   No human mistakes. Such a program operates in strict accordance with the parameters and algorithm set. By contrast with traders, it cannot make mistakes due to fatigue or external distractions.   Fast reaction. Compared to humans, it takes a bot less time to analyze the current situation on the mark...
Read more