BENGALURU: The legislature has to take into consideration that existing statutory provisions relating to reckless and negligent driving are hardly sufficient to curb the menace of wheeling. To fill up this legislative vacuum, suitable and stringent provisions should be incorporated by amending the IPC and Motor Vehicles Act to complement each other, said the Karnataka High Court, while refusing to grant bail to an accused involved in road rage by way of wheelie.
Justice V Srishananda passed the order recently, while rejecting the bail petition filed by Arbaz Khan (29) from Gangavathi in Koppal district. “Prima facie, allegations, including the photographs, go to show that the petitioner was involved in the road rage. In fact, it is a trending menace on the public road which not only endangers the rider and pillion rider of the motorcycle, but also the general public at large,” the judge observed.
The petitioner, a habitual offender, and two others were riding a bike and doing wheelies when they fell on October 9, 2024. When the police went to help them, they abused the police and also manhandled them. A mobile phone of a policeman was snatched and thrown into the Tungabhadra canal.
The court said that a plain reading of the provision of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and IPC, 1860 shows that existing statutory provisions are not adequate for enforcement agencies to effectively curb the menace of “wheelie”. Perhaps, at the time of enacting the Act, legislators did not foresee or specifically contemplate that a two-wheeler would be driving on the hind wheel alone. Accordingly, no express penal provision was envisaged to avert the mischief. At present, such acts are booked as general offences of reckless or negligent driving.
However, it is to be noted that the absence of a specific and necessary provision has resulted in a legislative vacuum, affecting the efficacy of law enforcement agencies in curbing the menace, as reckless driving is bailable. The prosecution agency is unable to book the culprit with severe penal provisions, which would effectively deter and curb the galloping trend of the menace. Wheelie was initially confined to urban areas on sufficiently wide and arterial roads. Over time, it has extended its tentacles even to rural areas, it added.
The court said it is now the duty of the state and its law enforcement agencies to legislate necessary legal provisions and to take stringent measures to suppress this activity.