 bill no lxii of 2007 the indian penal code (amendment) bill, 2007 a billfurther to amend the indian penal code, 1860be it enacted by parliament in the fifty-eighth year of the republic of  india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the indian penal code (amendment) act, 2007short title and commencement(2) it shall come into force with immediate effectfine which may extend to one thousand rupees or with both" the words "with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year and with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees and for second or subsequent offence with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and with fine which may extend to ten thousand rupees" shall be substitutedamendment of section 304a3 in section 304a of the code for the words "with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years or with fine, or with both" the following shall be substituted, namely:—"with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and fine which may extend to one lakh rupeesprovided that if it is proved that the rash or negligent act was committed under the influence of alcohol, the punishment shall not be less than three years but may extend to five years and the fine shall not be less than one lakh rupees but may extend to five lakh rupees20 of 1974 59 of 1988provided further that notwithstanding anything contained in this code or the code of criminal procedure, 1973 or the motor vehicles act, 1988 the offence under this section shall be non-bailable" statement of objects and reasonsit is horrible but true that not a single day goes without, a report in the newspaper about a mother or school child or a poor man crushed by a bus or some vehicle or other rash and negligent driving claims more than 60,000 innocent lives across the country every year the blue line buses in the capital city have become killer buses and are running amok on the streets of delhi these buses more often than not, are engaged in a race with each other trying desperately to stay ahead so that they can take more passengers the drivers of these buses are always under stress as they run against time to cover maximum distance or trips during the day and in the process end with causing fatal accidents call centres' cab drivers are another culprits on the road as with a view to reaching on time during odd hours they drive these cabs at a very high speed resulting in accidents even the incidents of drunken driving in urban areas are rising menacingly drunken bus drivers and youngsters behave as monster behind the steering as if there is no law to check them and rightly so in view of the weak provisions of law which hardly act as a deterrentwhen a vehicle mows down a person, the police starts a case under section 279 and304a of the ipc which pertain to rash and negligent driving and causing death due to same the offences under these sections are bailable offences and within hours of the accident the person is free and within a day or two he is again behind the wheel as if nothing has happened even the period of punishment under these sections is very less and that too is rarely awarded ipc was enacted in the year 1861 when there were hardly any motor vehicles in the country the absurdity of the law can be gauged from the fact that if you can drive and kill somebody, the offence is bailable and if you steal rs 10 from some one it is a non-bailable offence under ipc therefore, the present position of law does not act as deterrent for the offendersrecently, the supreme court while considering the increasing number of vehicular accidents resulting in death of a large number of innocent people has favoured that punishment under 304a for two year is grossly inadequatetherefore, it is high time that amendment be made in sections 279 and 304a of ipc by prescribing stringent punishment besides making offence under 304a non-bailablehence this billmahendra mohan annexureextracts from the indian penal code, 1860    279 rash driving or riding on a public way—whoever drives any vehicle, or rides, on any public way in a manner so rash or negligent as to endanger human life, or to be likely to cause hurt or injury to any other person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees or with both    2[304a causing death by negligence—whoever causes the death of any person by doing any rash or neglegent act not amounting to culpable homicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both]     rajya  sabha———— a billfurther to amend the indian penal code, 1860————(shri mahendra mohan, mp)mgipmrnd—5051rs(s-5)—30-11-2007