Punishment may go up
The High Court is likely to hold the final hearing today on a writ petition for cancelling amendments to Criminal Procedure Code and Penal Code that reduced the maximum punishment for reckless driving from seven years to three years imprisonment.
The petitioner prayed to the court to urgently hear the seven-month-old petition following the death of noted filmmaker Tareque Masud and media personality Ashfaque Munier Mishuk in a road accident.
The court on Sunday set the date for the hearing, said petitioner's counsel Manzill Murshid.
The government agrees with increasing the prison term for the offence, the attorney general hinted.
On October 10, 1985, HM Ershad's regime amended Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and Penal Code, reducing the prison term to three years from seven.
Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh on January 4 this year filed the writ petition seeking HC directive on the government to cancel the amendments to CrPC and Penal Code.
Following the petition, the HC later that day issued a rule upon the government to explain within three weeks why reducing punishment for wild driving should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star on Monday that he would like to offer during today's hearing a few suggestions on road safety.
“I suggest all the drivers and transport owners obtain insurance policies,” he said. “In case of a fatal accident, the victim's family will be compensated under the insurance policy obtained by the responsible driver and the owner.”
He, however, said nothing can compensate the loss in Saturday's crash that cut short the career and life of Tareque Masud and Mishuk Munier.
“All highways have to be made four times wider by acquiring land,” Mahbubey Alam said.
He recommends imposing higher amount of fine for careless driving and also teaching drivers humane values.
The top law officer of the state said all the vehicles should be made legally bound to install tracking devices so that any transport, crossing the speed limit, can be identified and caught.
“Amending laws for reducing or increasing the severity of punishment for bad driving is a concern of parliament. But I personally feel there should be a higher jail sentence for the crime,” he added.
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