PONNUSWAMI Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition to interfere in revision with the conviction ,of. the petitioner under Section 304A, Penal Code and the sentence of six months simple imprisonment awarded on him.

(2.) The facts are briefly these. The petitioner was a lorry driver. On 10th October 1947, at about 6.45 p. m., on the road between Tambaram and Vandalur, he was driving his lorry, M. S. P. 3163, at a fast and dangerous pace. He was taking furniture to a School. He wanted to overtake three bullock carts heavily laden with hay, and with that object, first swerved swiftly to the right and then quickly to the left, with the inevitable consequence that the deceased, a man aged 30 going along the road in the opposite direction, and a bit tipsy, got knocked down and killed. Both the lower Courts, after exhaustive discussion of the evidence, have come to the conclusion that the petitioner was certainly guilty of rash and negligent driving, and brought about the death of the deceased by such driving, and especially the swift turn to the right and then to the left in an attempt to overtake the three heavily laden bullock carts. I see no reason to differ from their conclusion.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner urged that the petitioner should not have been convicted as the deceased was under the influence of some intoxicant and was walking along tipsily and had brought the accident on himself and was guilty of contributory negligence, and that if the deceased had not been tipsy, and staggered unexpectedly two feet towards the lorry, he would not have been hit and killed. I cannot agree. Contributory negligence, in the strict sense of the term, has no place in criminal law. If the petitioner was not gulity of negligence, he would not be liable under Section 304A Penal Code. The fact that the victim also contributed a little by his negligence is absolutely immaterial where there is ample proof that the petitioner had brought about the accident by his own negligence and rash driving, and attempt to overtake at that point. He could and should have avoided the accident by his care arid caution.