Man sentenced to 20 days in jail for drunken driving

"Even the court can take judicial notice of the fact that accidents involving commercial vehicles are on rise and if no deterrent steps are taken then many innocent lives are going to be lost in the accidents," said Additional Sessions Judge Vikas Dhull.

"The trial court by awarding sentence of 20 days to the appellant, where maximum sentence provided is six months, has already shown leniency and no ground is made out to further reduce the sentence," ASJ Dhull added, upholding the sentence given to the convict by the magisterial court.

The magisterial court had convicted Brijesh Kumar for driving a heavy commercial vehicle in a heavily drunken state in the wrong lane had hitting another vehicle on July 8, 2012.

ASJ Dhull, while upholding the magisterial court's order, directed that Kumar be taken into custody to serve his term.

The sessions court order came on Kumar's plea against the magisterial court's decision, which had also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on him.

Kumar's counsel submitted that the trial court order suffers from legal infirmity as the magistrate had also seized the convict's licence for six months and that amounted to double jeopardy.

The sessions court, however, rejected this contention.