Drunk driving: Court refuses to set aside man's jail term

A Delhi court has refused to set aside the jail term of a man held guilty of drunken driving, saying inebriated drivers only add up to an already acute problem.
Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Kumar denied the relief to a south Delhi resident, who was sentenced to five-day jail term and whose licence was suspended for six months by a magisterial court after he was caught riding his scooty in a drunken state.
"I agree with the observation of Metropolitan Magistrate that the menace of road accidents in Delhi is increasing day-by-day and such a grim scenario, the driving of persons who are drunken to the extent at this case in hand, only adds to an already acute problem," the judge said.

The court, while dismissing the appeal of convict Chandan KumarPandey challenging the lower court's decision, noted that the permissible limit of alcohol as per the Motor Vehicle Act is 30 mg alcohol per 100ml blood, but the presence of alcohol in the convict's blood was six times the permissible limit.
"Having considered the quantity of alcohol in the blood of the appellant (Chandan) as found in breath analyser test, I am of the view that the magistrate had rightly sentenced him..." the judge said.
A magisterial court had on March 18, 2016 had sentenced Chandan to five-day imprisonment for drunken driving and imposed a fine of Rs 3,600 on him besides suspending his licence for six months.

In his appeal, the man had sought setting aside of the sentence contending that he maylosehis jobincaseof imprisonment.