HC expresses concern over traffic rule violations

“...it is high time that the people of this country inculcate within themselves the civic sense which we all have to follow without anyone compelling us to follow,” Justice Jitendra Jain said in his order

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday observed that both motorists and pedestrians in India need to emulate developed countries in following traffic rules.

HC expresses concern over traffic rule violations

“...it is high time that the people of this country inculcate within themselves the civic sense which we all have to follow without anyone compelling us to follow,” Justice Jitendra Jain said in his order.

The single judge bench observed that when Indians travel abroad, they follow the rules and regulations of the foreign country while crossing the roads or driving. “I do not see any reason why we should not follow the rules and regulations of our country…There cannot be any justification for not following the same,” Justice Jain said.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Thane residents Vasanti and Kirti Joshi, heirs of Satish Joshi, who met with an accident while crossing the road near Aradhana Talkies in Naupada on November 9, 2012. Satish, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was partially paralytic, was knocked down by a Thane Municipal Transport Corporation (TMTC) bus at around 6:50pm, and he passed away on March 16, 2013.

Justice Jain enhanced the compensation awarded by the MACT to Satish’s family to ₹15.15 lakh. The court said that the MACT had attributed equal negligence to the deceased and the bus driver, and it had no reason to interfere with that finding.

A pedestrian, the court said, should try to cross the road only at the signal so “to some extent the negligence certainly is attributable to the deceased”. The driver of the bus too should have realised that a person limping was trying to cross the road and been more careful; the driver had applied the brakes but it was too late, the court said.

Justice Jain expressed concern over the general tendency of people to flout traffic rules. He wrote in his order, “I bring an end to this matter with the hope that progress is made by the citizens of this country on this issue by inculcating within themselves the civic sense of following rules and regulations while driving and crossing the road, by observing that rights and duties are two sides of same coin; exercise of one must not lead to the neglect of other.”