Drunk driving, drinking in public may lead to driving license cancellation in Delhi

Ahead of Commonwealth Games 2010, government of Delhi to crack down on drunk driving, drinking in public.

In the run-up to the Commonwealth Games that will take place in New Delhi in October 2010, the administration of Delhi has decided to get tough on drunk driving and drinking in public places. Related story on Commonwealth Games 2010 accommodation.

A sworn affidavit filed by the Delhi government’s Department of Transport before a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court, headed by Chief Justice A P Shah, said that the administration will enforce ‘zero tolerance’ against drunk driving on the roads of the national capital.  For some reason, several newspapers keep referring to drunken driving as ‘drink driving’.  Drink driving?  To me, that brings up a picture of a bottle of imported scotch driving a car-pretty much an impossibility, even in a crazy city like New Delhi.

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The Division Bench of Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar was hearing the suggestions on checking incidents of drunk driving in Delhi after these suggestions were referred to the Division Bench from a single judge, along with a request to treat it as a public-interest litigation (PIL).

According to the affidavit, the Delhi government, after consulting the Delhi Police and the Transport Department, has decided to suspend and revoke the driving licences of those persons who drive under the influence of alcohol.

In the affidavit, the Transport Department’s senior deputy commissioner Ajay Kumar Bisht stated that 762 notices for disqualification had been served to persons caught driving drunk. These persons face a ban, for a limited period, from possessing a licence or driving any kind of vehicle.

Anup J Bhambhani, lawyer and the Delhi High Court’s amicus curiae, said that disqualification of driving licences in a city like Delhi “will be a real, everyday deterrent” for those who drink and drive as “it will cramp their lifestyle.”

After perusing the affidavit, the High Court asked the Delhi police to furnish more guidelines to curtail the rising incidence of road accidents caused by drunk driving, and also directed the Joint Commissioner (Traffic) to consult the Transport Department and draft guidelines taking into consideration the suggestions by the amicus curiae on the subject.

The High Court directed the police to submit the draft guidelines on November 11, 2009 – which is the next date of hearing – for the consideration of the court.

The Division Bench agreed with the suggestion given by the amicus curiae to revoke the licence of repeated offenders and to forfeit their vehicles. It also agreed with the suggestions of the amicus curiae that keeping a strict vigil at liquor bars and a special drive in the festival season would help check untoward incidents.

However, the court did not favour the suggestion that the managers of the restaurant/bar should provide substitute drivers to its guests, and dismissed another suggestion that guests can leave their keys with the restaurant drivers and then make sure that the driver is allowed to drive only when he/she is “in a proper state to drive.”

The Delhi government’s new Excise Bill includes a provision for a fine of up to Rs 50,000 for those who are caught drinking alcohol in public like on roadside, inside cars or outside eateries. Besides, such offenders also face imprisonment without bail.

The new Excise Bill, which has been approved by the Union Home Ministry, will be presented in the Delhi Assembly’s winter session.

Meanwhile, the traffic police arrested 123 motorists in Mumbai for drunk driving on October 8, 2009.

According to the police, a total of 37,717 cases of drunk driving were registered and 17,910 motorists were sentenced to simple imprisonment in Mumbai in the last two years.

Considering the general lawlessness even among the policeman in New Delhi, it might be a little dangerous to allow them the power to jail offenders even in cases like drunk driving.  The potential for misuse is extremely high.  The fear that you may lose your driving licence in the event of being caught might be good enough to control the drivers of Delhi.

Drinking in public, on the other hand, has always been a regular part of New Delhi’s social life.  It is common to find guests at marriage ceremonies drinking standing around their cars.
He is still a conservative city, and therefore, people do not like to drink at home or are not allowed to do so.  Drinking is his sneaky activity here, there are no beer bars like in Bombay, and sitting in your car mixing the drinks and then driving away sozzled often leads to accidents.

That public drinking is so much a part of the city can be seen from the fact that one of the newspapers in Delhi published an article which quoted someone telling the reporter that he and his friends would not drink at home, could not afford to go to pubs, and now they would not be allowed to drink even on the flyovers in the city!  Drinking on the streets often lead to brawls, eve teasing, rash driving, macho behaviour and accidents.

It would be great, if the authorities could use the excuse of the Commonwealth Games 2010 to control the drunken driving and the public drinking twin menaces in New Delhi.