The Kerala police have usually charged people using mobile phones while driving or riding vehicles under Section 118 (e) of the Kerala Police Act, which penalises knowingly doing something which endangers the public or causes a failure in public safety.
Santhosh, who was thus charged, approached the Kerala High Court challenging this, stating that the mere possibility of such a danger was not punishable. On Wednesday, the court ruled in his favour.
A Division Bench of Justice A.M. Shaffique and Justice P. Somarajan on Wednesday upheld a single judge’s ruling in 2014 — that in order to attract Section 118 (e), something had to be done by the accused to endanger the public — and observed that since there is no statutory provision stating that using a mobile phone while driving is dangerous, it was not possible to invoke Section 118(e).
But rash drivers in the rest of the country (or, indeed, Kerala) cannot breathe easier: they can still be penalised under Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, or under Section 279 of the Indian Penal Code. The MVA penalises ‘driving dangerously’ with imprisonment up to six months or a fine up to ₹1,000 for the first offence, and for any second or subsequent offence within three years, with two years in prison and a fine up to ₹2,000. Under the IPC, rash driving or riding can get an offender imprisoned for up to six months, or fined ₹1,000, or both.
The NDA government’s Bill to amend the Motor Vehicles Act includes a provision to cancel the licence of drivers who use a mobile phone. On the proposed amendments, the Centre has explained that they would provide for disqualification from holding a driving licence and revocation of licence, of drivers jumping red lights, driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, driving while using a mobile phone and driving the wrong way.
