NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has ruled that driving at a high speed cannot automatically be deemed as rash and negligent behavior and stressed that speed alone is insufficient to establish culpability unless supported by concrete evidence of reckless conduct.
Justice Saurabh Banerjee made the observation while discharging a man accused of driving at high speed and fatally hitting two pedestrians.
The accused had been convicted by a trial court under Sections 279 (rash driving) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC, 1860, and sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment.
Reversing the conviction, the court noted a significant lack of evidence to demonstrate that the accused was driving in a reckless or negligent manner.
“Even assuming that the petitioner was driving at a ‘high speed’, the same is not sufficient to conclude that he was, in fact, driving the car in a ‘rash and negligent’ manner,” Justice Banerjee said.
The court pointed out that neither the witnesses nor the prosecution had defined what constituted “high speed” in the case or provided any specific details about the speed at which the vehicle was being driven.
The HC observed that merely because the car, allegedly being driven at a ‘high speed’, hit two pedestrians, leading to their death, it is not adequate for a court of law to hold that the petitioner was being ‘rash and negligent’.
It further criticised the prosecution’s case for its overall inconsistencies and lack of conclusive proof. “Succinctly put, there being an overall infirmity and unfilled lacunae in the case set up by the prosecution, it was not able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the petitioner was indeed driving the car in a ‘rash and negligent’ manner, which resulted in the demise of the two pedestrians,” the court observed.