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Young, Rich, Irresponsible?

Dr. Mridul Bhasin, Founder Trustee Muskaan Foundation for Road Safety, who set up the 22-year-old NGO after the death of her daughter in an accident, writes about the perils of under-age driving and looks deeply at law and its interpretation in road accident cases relating to juvenile offenders. Her NGO has been conferred two National Awards by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India.

Complexities of law and order get mixed up in developing economies like ours where there is a rapid growth in road infrastructure. While the country progresses with increased access in the employment, education and business sectors, the stupendous increase in accidents is always detrimental to common and vulnerable road users – the pedestrians, the rikshaw and e-rikshaw drivers and the two-wheel riders. Keeping in mind the disparities of rich, very rich and the poor or aspiring middle class, traffic is one such area that shows rising complexities faced by its population.

Of the other varied problems, the most gruesome is under-age driving. Often there are discrepancies arising due to interpretation of law as specified in the amended Motor Vehicle Act 2019 and the Juvenile Justice Act. Also affecting the judgement could be laxity in getting the proper assessment by the concerned authorities and behavior patterns of those who own luxury cars. There are increasing reports in the media of such underage and drunk driving which rightly puts the onus of the accidents with heavy fines on the guardians of such juveniles.

The Provision of Motor Vehicle Act 2019

According to the amended Motor Vehicle Act of 2019 section-199 (A), if a minor drives a vehicle, the guardian or owner of the vehicle is held responsible and can face penalties including a fine of Rs 25,000 and imprisonment up to three years. This essentially makes the parents liable for their underage children driving a vehicle. While the stringent sections of the Act are heartening, it is yet not clear if the deterring spirit of the law has been enforced or not. There is need to understand and interpret afresh the approaches applied to young offenders’ cases that are on the increase every day.

Even if legalities are kept aside, the behavioral norms of parents are to be studied as they have a direct bearing on the children. Though buying cars could be a necessity for a middle-class family, it is a matter of pride and status symbol for those who have money. Some sections of the society flaunt their capacity to buy the latest, the fastest and the most expensive big cars and it is apparent in their behavior when they hand over the keys of a car or a power motor bike to their underage wards who in turn carry forward their status symbol syndrome amongst their friends in school. Love of speed, lack of training, absence of license and responsibility all jumble up to create havoc on the roads where road users are seen struggling to even walk safely. Then there are people who sit or sleep on the footpaths at night.

We have been seeing regularly videos of the under aged driving cars and performing stunts on the vehicle or ramming the car into pedestrians or stationary vehicles. According to the NCRB 2022 report, 884 juvenile were apprehended for rash driving on public roads in India. Tamil Nadu reported the highest number, with around 208 juvenile drivers caught for rash driving.24 Jan 2025.

As the data of SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) says in its 2023–2024 fiscal year report, in India, SUVs accounted for around 51% of all passenger vehicle sales and this trend is expected to continue to increase. Today, the roads are dominated and in fact cater solely to car owners restricting other road users’ right of movement. The larger number of vulnerable road users like drivers of two wheelers, pedestrians and rickshaw pullers negotiate and jostle within the space left for them. This aggravates the chances of accidents. It is important that the luxury car owners have to be aware of the criminal liabilities the MVA 2019 stipulates on the owners regarding their underage wards.

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