HC quashes rash driving FIR for wrong-side riding, says crime not properly made out | Mumbai News – Times of India

MUMBAI: Holding that the police appeared to have lodged an FIR “in a casual manner” against a motorcyclist last April during a special drive against wrong-side driving, the Bombay high court quashed the pending case.
However, the relief is subject to the 22-year-old accused paying Rs 15,000 as cost to the Central Police Welfare Fund.
The Jogeshwari police filed the FIR for rash and dangerous driving against Peter Misquitta after he was found riding his two-wheeler in the direction opposite to on-going traffic by a traffic constable on April 29, 2022 at 10am. He was riding on a service road.
Misquitta moved the high court, seeking quashing of the FIR and criminal proceedings against him before an Andheri magistrate.
The HC division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Sharmila Deshmukh ruled in his favour, saying an offence of rash driving under section 279 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) “is attracted if the vehicle is driven in a rash or negligent manner as to endanger human life or likely to cause hurt to other persons”. “Driving of vehicle at high speed may not attract the provisions of section 279 of the IPC,” the order noted.
The court held that except making a bald allegation in the FIR of him driving in the opposite direction, no act is attributed to the youth to indicate rashness or negligence. The HC added that no offence is made out under section 336 of IPC for endangering human life by a rash or negligent act.
The FIR had also invoked section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act (dangerous driving). To sustain this charge, a person has to drive the vehicle at a speed or in a manner dangerous to the public, said the HC, and added that it found no allegations in the chargesheet to warrant its invocation. The section attracts a maximum sentence of one year in jail and fine of Rs 5,000.
The HC also found no independent witness statements on record, and concluded that the FIR made out no prima facie case of rash driving to endanger human life.