The Motor Vehicle Act clearly prohibits issuing license to minors to drive light vehicles as well as heavy vehicles.The reason behind the restriction is perhaps taking into account the lack of physical as well as the mental maturity, the stress involved in driving the vehicle and also their lack of knowledge about the traffic rules etc The reasoned intention of the legislators cannot be found fault with.
The restriction is not only to prevent the minors from causing any accident and sustaining any personal injury while driving the vehicles but also in the general interest and safety of the public who may encounter any accident in the course of the minor’s driving.
Of late, we frequently hear that minors have caused accidents by driving the vehicles, resulting in personal injury as well as causing deaths to hapless victims. Recently, a minor son of an MLA from Uttar Pradesh, had driven a car in a drunken state and ran amok resulting in the death of three persons who were lying on the platform and the minor son was also severely injured. After the accident, a number of beer bottles were also recovered from the car.
With increasing number of road accidents involving vehicles driven by under-aged boys or minor boys, Union Minister Renuka Chowdry while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of facilitation centre of the Women and Child Development Ministry said that parents of such children should face action like cancellation of their driving license.She also said that they would write to the Road Transport Ministry to take stringent action against the parents.
Ms.Renuka Chowdry also recalled a recent incident on Gurgaon Expressway where a car carrying three teenagers and allegedly driven by an under-aged boy (a minor boy)met with a fatal mishap.
The idea of taking action against the parents is right. But normally in most of the cases involving driving by minors or under-aged boys, they happen to be the wards of political personalities like MLAs and MPs etc and from the higher strata of the society, where a single family has a number of vehicles for their usage.
The Government should not only take action against their parents by withholding their license and by going a step further, in the case of an MLA or MP, they should be expelled from the session of an assembly or parliament, causing much embarrassment to them and making a dent in their chances of getting re-elected or getting re-nominated. After all, lives of poor people is more important and more valuable than the post of an MLA or MP.