Mobile court proposal for traffic offenders sent to HC

Mumbai Police's proposal for five mobile courts to intensify its clampdown on traffic offenders and punish them on the spot, has got a nod from Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, who has moved it to Chief Justice of Bombay High Court for approval.
"We are hopeful of obtaining the consent from the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court soon in this regard. Once sanctioned, we can sternly enforce the traffic rules and ensure sentencing of the traffic violators on the spot," Deputy Police Commissioner (Traffic) Pratap Digaokar told PTI.
The instant punishment of traffic rules violators would hopefully act as a deterrent to others, he said.

Also, in a bid to step up crackdown on drunken driving, the traffic police have decided to procure 91 sophisticated breath analysers, equipped with a camera and GPS indicator.
Explaining the need for five mobile courts with magistrates during its drives, Digaokar said, "The city has five regions - south, central, north, western and eastern - and we felt there is a requirement of magistrates who can punish on the spot the traffic violators, who either drunk drive, drive without helmet or with vehicle having tinted glasses, among others."
"The punishment could be either in the form of fine or sentence or both, as our aim is to drastically bring down traffic related offences," he said.

S S Shinde, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of the Esplanade Court, has accepted the mobile courts proposal and forwarded it to the Bombay High Court, the DCP said.

As far as breath analysers are concerned, the city police have 82 such equipment but only 22 are in working condition.
"We have tried and tested a sophisticated breath analyser and ordered for them. These analysers will be obtained soon," he said.
The equipment can take the photo of the violator, details such as name and address can be mentioned on it and also the machine having GPS indicator will make the case fool-proof, the DCP added.

Last year, 14,220 drunken driving offenders were penalised and sentenced while this year till October, 12,998 cases have been registered.