10yrs Prison will be injustice to Sanjeev Nanda

10 years of Imprisonment just because of drunken driving. Is it justice?
When I was young I read a poem about Gautam Budhha. I don’t remember the poem but its moral was that justice is compassionate. Is it compassionate in Sajeev Nanda case?
I have always believed that the purpose of punishment should be to reform the criminal and act as a deterrent for others. But will this punishment do either of these?
If 10 years prison term is given to Nanda and if it is because of his attempts to botch up trial than I will support it whole heartedly but if it is because of drink driving then I will think that great injustice is done to this person.
First thing that we have to consider is what was the real reason for this unfortunate instance? According to me the real culprit was alcohol for once a person is drunk he/she loses control on his/her senses. The person cannot decide what is right and what is wrong. He cannot even decide should he drive or should he not drive? If someone meets with an accident in such a stage you cannot blame him for rash or negligence driving because he cannot make this decision in such a stage. “A motor vehicle being driven by a drunk driver is virtually a death machine on the road “is what the judge said. Is it justice that driving a death machine on road attracts maximum 1 day prison while if you cause death by driving that death machine you get 10yrs?
Lets first look at the law. What is permissible limit? What does 30mg/100ml blood means? Does that mean I can have one bear or one glass of bear or 30ml votka or 60ml whiskey? Does any Pub or disc or bar has this information that I can find and ensure that I do not cross the limit? Shouldn’t this information be displayed at every place where alcohol is served? What action has been taken by the police to inform people about the limits in simple terminology? Whenever I go to party people will say arre one bear is allowed nahi nahi two are allowed. If I don’t have this information and I listen to someone else and have 2 bears and meet with an accident, should I go to jail for 10 years. Is there any bar which has this policy of letting people know that they will be crossing permissible limit if they have one more drink? Or any alcohol bottle that mentions in simple language what is the permissible limit?
Most of the times in parties, you are forced by your friends to drink. Let’s take a hypothetical case (something that happens with almost everyone). 4 frds meet for a party one of them doesn’t want to drink because he has to drive home. But the other 3 who too have to drive are drinking, so due to peer pressure and coercion of frds he takes one drink and after that loses it and have few more drinks. On his way back home he meets with an accident. Should this guy go to prison for 10yrs just because he was not strong enough to say no to his frds? Let’s make this example a little more dramatic. All four of them meet with an accident on their way back home. While other 3 were lucky and there was no one sleeping on the pavements this poor guy was not. Should this guy get 10 yrs just because he was so unlucky that there were people sleeping on his pavement? Is justice a factor of luck?
Will this justice do anything to reform Nanda? I don’t think so. All it will do is to ruin his life. If I put myself on his shoes and think I feel the biggest punishment for me would be the realization that there are people who are not here just because of me. This feeling of guilt will remain in me throughout my life. I would be a change person from the date of accident. I am sure that I will never touch alcohol or drive a vehicle after that. We need to understand here Nanda is not a hard hearten criminal who needs to be punished. At most he is a misguided youth who made a mistake. There is a need to reform him, there is a need to punish him but is 10 yrs prison justifiable? Take away his driving license, put him in a reformatory for a year, make him pay hefty compensation to the victim’s family but for god sake do not destroy his life.
Will this punishment act as a deterrent? No I don’t think so. Sanjeev Nanda will become history in few days. No one except his family will remember who he is. This punishment might act as a deterrent for a month or 2 but then it will be back to normal. The only way to stop this menace is effective policing and hefty punishment for offenders. Today, once in 100 or may be 1000 times you ever get caught, and what’s the price to get free? 100, 200 or may be 500 depending on your negotiation power. How will you ever deter people from drink driving by this punishment? And it is the drink driving which is the real culprit and not the accident.