Reduced road crash penalty illegal: HC

The High Court has ruled an amendment that reduced punishment for road accidents as illegal. The bench of Justices Salma Masud Chowdhury and Md Khasruzzaman gave the ruling after settling a writ petition on Thursday. The court said the 1985 amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure was in conflict with the basic rights laid down in the Constitution. The amendment, made under HM Ershad’s regime, reduced the maximum punishment for road accidents from 7 years to three. Lawyer Asaduzzaman Siddique filed a writ petition, challenging the amendment on behalf of the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB). ‘The previous penalty of 7 years in jail will be upheld as the court has ruled the amendment as illegal. But the court has also observed that this punishment was not enough in the present context,’ the plaintiff’s lawyer Monzil Morshed told reporters after the HC verdict, according to a news agency.