An auto-rickshaw driver has been told to assist the traffic police at busy traffic signals in Delhi for five days by a Sessions court here after he approached it against a sentence of seven days in prison handed over to him by a magistrate court which held him guilty for drunken driving.
Asking Mohan Lal, a resident of Inderpuri, to report to the South-West area Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) for five days, Additional Sessions Judge S. C. Rajan said: “Seven days is modified and now the appellant (Lal) is directed to report to the DCP (traffic) South-West District at his office at 9 a.m. in the morning who will depute him to assist the traffic police official on duty at any busy traffic red light under his jurisdiction in managing/diverting traffic from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for five days with effect from May 2, 2012.”
After being caught driving under the influence of alcohol on February 13, a metropolitan magistrate's court had sentenced him to seven days in jail and a fine of Rs. 2,000.
Lal adopted a plea that he had no criminal record, was willing to do social work, and that he had pleaded guilty to save precious court time. “He has no criminal record. Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case and antecedents of the appellant, it would meet the ends of justice if Lal is given and opportunity to mend himself and learn the norms of civic society,” the court said.
