MR. NIKHIL WAGLE AND OTHERS. Vs. THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule has been already issued in this Public Interest Litigation and the same is pending for final disposal. This Public Interest Litigation has appeared on board from time to time under the caption of "Directions" for reporting compliance by the Union of India with the directions issued earlier. The occasion for filing the present ash 2 pil -77.02 Public Interest Litigation is an incident of the early morning of 28 th November 2002 in Mumbai in which the Fourth Respondent, who is a popular Hindi Cine -star, was allegedly involved. During the pendency of this Petition, he was convicted by the Court of Sessions for various offences including those punishable under Section 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code and Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act,1988(for short "M.V.Act"). It is alleged that he was found driving a car while he was under the influence of alcohol.

(2.) The order of conviction passed by the Sessions Court was set aside by learned Single Judge of this Court 1. Today, the learned Government Pleader on instructions states that the State Government has taken a decision to immediately prefer a Special Leave Petition before the Apex Court for challenging the said judgment and order of the learned Single Judge of this Court. He states that the Special Leave Petition will be filed in January 2016. In view of this statement, for the time being, we are not considering the implications of the observations made by the learned Single Judge in the said judgment and order about the major defects in the investigation. Nevertheless, appropriate interim directions will have to be issued considering the fact that in the recent past, there have been large number of cases involving violation of Section 185 of the M.V. Act. During last few years there have been number of cases of accidents involving motor vehicles driven by persons 1 Criminal Appeal No.572 of 2015 decided on 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th December 2015. who were under the influence of alcohol and who were guilty of violation of clause (a) of Section 185 of the M.V.Act.

(3.) The Apex Court has dealt with the issue of drunken driving in several cases. Recently, in the case of State Through P.S. Lodhi Colony, New Delhi v. Sanjeev Nanda. In paragraph 86, the Apex Court has succinctly noted the issue involved which reads thus: