 bill no  46  of  2008 the indian penal code  (amendment) bill, 2008 by shri kashiram rana, mp a billfurther to amend the indian penal code, 1860be  it enacted by parliament in the fifty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:—1  (1) this act may be called the  indian penal code  (amendment) act, 2008short title and commencement(2) it shall come into force at once3  after section 304b of the principal act, the following new section shall be inserted, namely:—insertion of new section 304c death due to rash and negligent driving5"304c whoever drives any motor vehicle, or rides, on any public place in a rash or negligent manner or drives or rides the motor vehicle under the influence of liquor so as to endanger human life, and causes death by his rash and negligent act, shall be committing the offence of murder and shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than fifty thousand rupees59 of 198810explanation—for the purpose of this section, the terms 'motor vehicle' and'public place' shall have the same meanings as is assigned to them under the motor vehicles act, 1988" statement of objects and reasonsthe mushrooming growth of our urban regions has resulted in rapid rise in the number of vehicles on the roads of our cities with the growth in population, the public transport system which consists mainly of buses has also grown the high growth in the public vehicles as well as private vehicles has tended to make roads very unsafe for pedestrians and other road users the problem is compounded by the people indulging in rash and negligent driving on the roads of cities such as delhi, thousands of people die every year as a result of this this menace has assumed particularly worrying proportions in the metropolitan cities the incident of  violating traffic signals and instructions, road rage, drunken driving etc are on the risethough there is considerable anger in the public about the rising number of road accidents, there has been no response to this problem from the government so far as to bringing legislation and empowering law enforcement agencies against persons responsible for road accidents is concerned in the absence of any stringent legal framework, the persons responsible for rash and negligent driving are let off easily similar is the case with those indulging in drunken driving persons indulging in rash and negligent driving or drunken driving knowingly endanger the lives of fellow road users and therefore need to be treated harshlysection 304a of the indian penal code is the only piece of legislation to deal with such kind of offenders the provisions of this section were inserted in 1870 when there were no motor vehicles in the country transport was only through carriages—drawn either by bullocks or horses motor vehicles arrived in the country only during the first decade of twentieth century at that time, private conveyance was the preserve of the englishmen and the upper echelons of the society this section was inserted with  a view to protect the interests of the british and the ruling class who only had the means to own a vehicle that could cause an accident and hence, while protecting their own interest, ensured that causing injury or death due to accident by a motor vehicle remains not too serious an offence that is why the offence was made bailable and that too with minimal punishment but the situation has changed now after the passage of one hundred forty years the need for changing the provisions with a view to make the provisions more stringent has grown stronger the deaths caused by rash and negligent driving should be considered as murder within the meaning of section 300 and punished as suchhence this billnew delhi;kashiram ranajuly 14, 2008 annexure extracts from the indian penal code (act no 45 of 1860)|                                                                                                 ||--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|| punishment                                                                                       || for culpable                                                                                     || homicide not                                                                                     || amounting to                                                                                     || murder                                                                                          || 304 whoever commits culpable homicide not amounting to murder, shall be punished                || with [imprisonment for life] or imprisonment of either description for a term which may          || extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine, if the act by which the death is caused   || is done with the intention of causing death, or of causing such bodily injury as is likely to    || cause death                                                                                     || or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, or          || with fine, or with both, if the act is done with the knowledge that it is likely to cause death, || but without any intention to cause death, or to cause such bodily injury as is likely to cause   || death,—                                                                                          || causing death                                                                                    || by negligence                                                                                   || [304a whoever causes the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent 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]               || dowry death                                                                                     || [304b (1) where the death of a woman is caused by any burns or bodily injury or                 || occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and          || it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her         || husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry,         || such death shall be called "dowry death", and such husband or relative shall be deemed to        || have caused her death                                                                           |explanation—for the purpose of this sub-section, "dowry" shall have the same meaning as in section 2 of the dowry prohibition act, 1961 (28 of 1961)(2) whoever commits dowry death shall be punished with imprisonment for a termwhich shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life]      lok   salok   sabhabha———— a billfurther to amend the indian penal code, 1860————(shri kashiram rana, mp)gmgipmrnd—2673ls(s5)—08092008gmgipmrnd—2674rs(crc)—28072008 gmgipmrnd—2675rs(crc)—28072008 gmgipmrnd—2676rs(crc)—28072008 gmgipmrnd—2677rs(crc)—28072008 gmgipmrnd—2678rs(crc)—28072008 gmgipmrnd—2679rs(crc)—28072008 gmgipmrnd—2680rs(crc)—28072008 gmgipmrnd—2681rs(crc)—28072008 gmgipmrnd—2682rs(crc)—28072008 gmgipmrnd—2683rs(crc)—28072008 gmgipmrnd—2684rs(crc)—28072008