Delhi HC to hear plea on rising road rage incidents

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea against the rising number of road rage incidents in the capital, and for direction to the government to amend the Motor Vehicles Act and make "deterrent provisions" on road rage.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw posted the matter for August 5 and clubbed it with the suo motu cognizance it took last week of the road rage issue where a traffic police man hurled a brick at a woman scooterist.

The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by two high court advocates -- Abhishek Choudhary and Harsh Ahuja -- told the court there was "no awareness programmes, workshop, campaign, advertisement, banners, hoardings, posters which would describe road rage as an offence and the consequences of committing such offences".

It sought direction to the governments to spread awareness through advertisements, FM radio, social media, print media etc. about the consequences or effects of road rage.

"The people on the road of Delhi, including motorists, commuters and pedestrians, have become so violent and aggressive towards each other that in the past such encounters have turned brutal and fatal," the two lawyers argued.

"Such incidents are mostly called as road rage," they told court.

They said road rage was uncontrolled anger that results in violence or threatened violence on the road, and, therefore, was a "criminal behaviour".

Choudhary said the registered cases of road rage were increasing every year and it was imperative to mention that these figures were "very alarming" and a "matter of grave concern".

Mentioning a report by IANS about the increasing number of road rage cases registered in past years, the plea said there were 36 cases in 2010, 34 in 2011, 49 in 2012, 53 in 2013, which increased to 93 in 2014 (till November).

The plea sought direction to the Delhi government to have "prior temperamental/ behaviour analysis test" of people before issuing driving licences.

It also mentioned a few recent road rage incidents highlighted by the media.

It said that in May 2012, a metropolitan magistrate accompanied by two other judges became the victim of road rage when their car was attacked by four bikers near the court complex in south Delhi.

In September 2013, a 40-year-old advocate was stabbed and injured by two college students when his car brushed their motorcycle.

In June 2014, a chartered accounted and his wife were beaten up by two men in Vasant Kunj when their car bumped into a vehicle behind them while reversing.

The plea added that earlier this month (May 2015), a DTC driver was beaten to death by a biker, a traffic policeman hurled a brick at a woman scooterist and a sub-inspector was slapped by a woman in public when he intervened in a quarrel to stop her from physically assaulting a taxi driver whose car grazed her vehicle. - IANS