HC ditches amended law cutting jail terms for reckless driving

The High Court declared on Thursday illegal and unconstitutional the impugned penal law reducing the jail terms to three years from seven for reckless driving, reports UNB.

Delivering the judgment upon a public interest litigation (PIL) writ petition that challenged the validity of the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and the Penal Code brought on October

10, 1985 during the military rule of HM Ershad, the HC recommended that the punishment for reckless driving should be increased further considering the reality to ensure people's right to life as guaranteed by the Constitution.

After hearing from both sides on the rule issued on January 4, 2011 upon a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), an HC bench, comprising Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury and Justice M Khasruzzaman, made its rule absolute.

The maximum punishment for any death in the road accident due to reckless driving was seven years as per the Penal Code till 1985. But the law was amended commuting the sentence of jail terms to three years from seven in 1985 for reckless driving that kills and maims countless people.

Emerging from the court, Advocate Manzill Murshid, the counsel for the PIL petitioner, told reporters that the impugned amendment to the law stands cancelled and the pre-85 penal provision stands in operation as the HC declared illegal reduction of the sentence.