A was driving his car while he was heavily drunk. B, who was coming from the opposite direction of the car, was also heavily drunk. A’s car dashed B and B was killed by A’s car. Has A committed any offense under the Indian Penal code?

Question: A was driving his car while he was heavily drunk. B, who was coming from the opposite direction of the car, was also heavily drunk. A’s car dashed B and B was killed by A’s car. Has A committed any offense under the Indian Penal code?

Find the answer to the mains question only on Legal Bites. [A was driving his car while he was heavily drunk. B, who was coming from the opposite direction of the car, was also heavily drunk. A’s car dashed B and B was killed by A’s car. Has A committed any offense under the Indian Penal code?

Answer:

In case the individual driving the vehicle is under the influence of intoxicants and causes an accident further resulting in the death of other people will be held guilty under Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code.

Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 explicitly states that:

“Whoever causes the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”

An excellent example of this would be the judgment passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in one of its cases. Here, a truck driver who was guilty of driving recklessly and negligently at high speed climbed the footpath and hit an individual from behind, causing his death. This act of rash and negligent driving of the truck driver on a public road was liable for an offense under Section 279 and 304A (causing death due to negligent driving) of the Indian Penal Code.

Dealing with the scope of Section 304A of IPC, Sir Lawrence Jenkins observed in Emperor v. Omkar Rampratap, (1913) 15 BOMLR 315, 

"To impose criminal liability under Section 304A Indian Penal Code, it is necessary that the death should have been the direct result of a rash and negligent act of the accused, and that act must be the proximate and efficient cause without the intervention of another's negligence. It must be the cause causans, it is not enough that it may have been the cause sine qua non."

In Mulla and another vs. State of Uttar Pradesh [(2010) 3 SCC 508], the court observed that

the facts of the case, the records would reveal that the petitioner in a drunken state while driving a car, crossing the yellow line hit a Motor Cycle, Auto and another Motor Cycle which were proceeding in the opposite direction and dashed on the platform due to which one person died and others sustained injuries, the case was decided under Section 304(A).

Therefore, it is immaterial whether B was also drunk in the present case. The fact that A was driving drunk during which his car dashed B and killed B, will make him liable under section 304A of the Indian Penal Code for causing the death of a person by his rash and negligent act.

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