Showing leniency to a 40-year-old driver of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), the High Court of Karnataka has not only limited his conviction in a minor road accident case to fine but also made it clear that the conviction will not affect his career with the organisation.
Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar passed the order on a criminal revision petition filed by Devendrappa H., a native Shivamogga district.
A magistrate court at Belthangady in Dakshina Kannada district in 2019 convicted him under Sections 279 (Rash driving on a public way) and 337 (Causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of IPC the Indian Penal Code for causing the road accident in the narrow stretch of Charmadi Ghat in August 2014. The bus which the petitioner was driving was involved in a collision with a private bus.
The magistrate court sentenced him to imprisonment for two months, besides imposing a fine of ₹1,500 while convicting him based on eyewitness testimony of two passengers of the KSRTC bus and the driver and cleaner of the private bus. As the district sessions court in 2021 upheld the magistrate court’s judgment, the petitioner moved the High Court seeking leniency.
Noticing from the evidence that the two buses had collided at curve in the ghat section, the High Court modified the conviction order by limiting the sentence to ₹1,500 fine while also making it clear that conviction would not affect his career and it should not be treated as a remark for his employment with KSRTC.
