Driving under influence of alcohol not only serious misconduct but offence too: SC

The Supreme Court has said that driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol is not only serious misconduct but is an offence also.

"Nobody can be permitted to drive the vehicle under the influence of alcohol. Such misconduct of driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol and playing with the life of the others is very serious misconduct," a bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna said.

The court ordered compulsory retirement of a police truck driver, who was accused of driving the vehicle under the influence of alcohol and causing an accident when he was carrying personnel from Fatehpur to Allahabad for Kumbh Mela duty in the year 2000.

"Driving a truck carrying the PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) personnel under the influence of alcohol is a very serious misconduct and such an indiscipline cannot be tolerated and that too in the disciplined Military," the bench added.

Family members of driver Brijesh Chandra Dwivedi, contended that the employee has since died, no loss was caused due to accident and his dismissal from service by the disciplinary authority was disproportionate.

"Merely because there was no major loss and it was a minor accident cannot be a ground to show leniency. It was sheer good luck that the accident was not a fatal accident. It could have been a fatal accident. When the employee was driving a truck carrying the PAC personnel, the lives of the personnel who were travelling in the truck were in the hands of the driver. Therefore, it can be said that he played with the lives of that personnel," the bench said.

\The court, however, converted punishment from dismissal to compulsory retirement saying it was too harsh and the driver has rendered 25-year long service.

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