Indu Malhotra, J. - (1.) The issue which has arisen for consideration in the present Criminal Appeals is whether the Gauhati High Court was justified in issuing directions that road traffic offences shall be dealt with only under the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 ("M.V. Act"), and in holding that in cases of road traffic or motor vehicle offences, prosecution under the provisions of Indian Penal Code,1860 ("IPC") is without sanction of law, and recourse to the provisions of the IPC would be unsustainable in law?
(2.) The Gauhati High Court, Agartala bench vide the impugned judgment dated 22.12.2008 held that: i. Sections 183 and 184 of the M.V. Act, which relate to driving of motor vehicles at excessive speeds and dangerously, and other offences under Chapter XIII of the M.V. Act are compoundable before the Police, or in court, and that no further proceeding shall be taken against the accused after he has pleaded guilty. On this premise, it was held "that the provisions of Cr.P.C must succumb to the statutory provisions to the M.V.Act, and any investigation, inquiry or trial contrary to the same, would be illegal and unsustainable in law". [Para 14 of the impugned judgment]. ii. The IPC and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ("Cr.P.C") are placed in Entry No. 1 and 2 of the Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. The M.V. Act,1988 falls under Entry No. 35 of the Concurrent List. Hence, the status of the M.V. Act is at par with the IPC and Cr.P.C, and it cannot be presumed that M.V. Act is either a subordinate legislation, or inferior to the IPC and Cr.P.C in status. [Para 21 of the impugned judgment] iii. Section 5 of the IPC removes any kind of ambiguity about the conviction and punishment of offenders under a special enactment, which covers the field. Section 208 of the M.V. Act has laid down a special procedure for disposal of road traffic offences. Hence, recourse to the IPC would offend Section 5 of the IPC. Section 5 of the IPC recognizes the supremacy of the special laws, which cannot be diluted under the garb of Section 26 of the General Clauses Act, 1897. [Paras 24- 26 of the impugned judgment] iv. The prosecution of road traffic offences under the IPC is not permitted, since it has no sanction of law. The only exception to this rule would be where the offence cannot be adequately punished under the M.V. Act. [Para 24-26 of the impugned judgment] v. Since road traffic offences can be regulated and adequately dealt with under the provisions of MV Act, resort to the provisions of the IPC, which is a general law should be avoided. [Para 28 of the impugned judgment] vi. Sections 183 to 188 of the MV Act, which relate to punishment for driving at excessive speed or dangerously or in a drunken condition, etc., are silent about the outcome of the accidents. These penal provisions do not prescribe any separate punishment for causing hurt to people or for damaging any property. However, this does not mean that the Legislature was not aware or totally oblivious to the consequences of dangerous driving while enacting the M.V. Act. [Para 30 of the impugned judgment] vii. If a person cannot be convicted for causing hurt to any person while driving a motor vehicle in a rash and dangerous manner under the MV Act, then the said offender cannot also be convicted under the IPC, since the IPC does not expressly take within its purview road traffic offences. [Para 30 of the impugned judgment] viii. To permit the prosecution of offenders under the provisions of any other penal law other than the M.V. Act in cases of motor vehicle offences would amount to overriding the M.V. Act, which is a special enactment framed by Parliament for motor vehicle offences. By invoking provisions of the IPC for motor vehicle offences, the basic character and structure of the M.V. Act would get distorted, and would not help in curbing the rising rate of motor vehicle accidents. [Para 33 of the impugned judgment] ix. Prosecution of offenders in cases of road traffic accidents must be carried out under the M.V. Act as a general rule subject to one exception i.e to try offenders in cases of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under S. 304 IPC, because sentence of imprisonment of 6 months provided under the M.V. Act appears to be inadequate, going by the rising rate of violent road accidents. The prosecution of offenders under the provisions of the IPC is violative of settled principles of law and contrary to the legislative intent of the M.V. Act. [Para 37 and 37.1 of the impugned judgment] x. The High Court directed the States of Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, and to issue appropriate directions to all subordinate officers to ordinarily register cases against offenders of motor vehicle accidents only under the provisions of the M.V. Act subject to the exception under S. 304 IPC.
(3.) The present Special Leave Petitions have been filed by the States of Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh before this Court, wherein vide Orders dated 12.05.2009 and 31.07.2009, the operation of the impugned judgment was stayed. This Court vide Order dated 26.04.2010 granted special leave to appeal, and directed that the stay of the impugned judgment would continue to operate during the pendency of the appeals.;