Criminal Law Review

Many people have heard about methods you can use to beat a breathalyzer. The truth is that there is no effective method to avoid having a properly calibrated breath test machine calculate your blood alcohol content fairly accurately.

One popular myth is to eat something such as breath mints, onions or coffee grounds to fool the machine. Eating strong foods may mask the odor of alcohol, but will not lower your blood alcohol level. Likewise, mouthwash will not lower the reading. If the mouthwash contains alcohol, it could actually increase the reading on the breath test.

People also mistakenly believe that they can consume a lot of caffeine and be fine to drive after a night of drinking. While you may feel more alert with caffeine in your system, it will not reduce your blood alcohol content.

Despite another rumor, drinking Zima will not help you pass a breath test. This urban legend started because Zima does not smell strongly of alcohol; however, a breathalyzer measures actual alcohol content. Just because an alcoholic beverage doesn’t smell much like alcohol does not mean that you can have all you want and then drive.

There is also a widely believed myth that putting a penny under your tongue when you take the test will allow you to pass, even if you’re over the legal limit. This is an urban legend that holds no water. Putting a penny under your tongue will increase your chances of swallowing or choking on a penny, that’s all.

The only relatively reliable way to beat a breath test is to have no alcohol in your system. If you have rinsed with a mouthwash containing alcohol prior to taking the test or if the machine malfunctions, you may still register a false positive.

If you have failed a breath test and been charged with DUI, consult a DUI lawyer right away. There may be several defense strategies that could help you beat your DUI, even though you didn’t beat the breathalyzer.

First of all let us understand what CrPC has to do with the people and what does this new change brings for them. There are different categories of the laws made in the system; they are broadly classified as the substantial and the procedural laws. As far as the criminal laws are concerned we find that the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the substantive law and the Criminal Procedure Code is the procedural aspect of the same. The crimes are mentioned under the IPC, but the procedure of filing an application and get the remedy is mentioned under the CrPC.

Quite often we find that people file cases just to harass the other party, as a result of which the stature of the legal standards is declining rapidly. Taking note of this, Government of India has proposed several amendments to the existing laws. But as we know, every thing has its own good and bad sides, so is the case with these amendments too.

The recent amendments are proposed under section 41 and 309 of CrPC. These sections deal with the arresting powers of police and powers of court to adjourn or postpone the proceedings. Let’s have a look to what these sections have to do with the common man. Section 41 tells us how police can arrest the person without warrant i.e. under what circumstances police can arrest the accused without obtaining the warrant from the court. This is applicable only in the case of serious crimes. Likewise, Section 309 deals with the postponing of the court proceedings if the matter does not require the attention at once.

Now let’s see what this proposed amendment has done? The government has listed the crimes in which the sentence given is less than or equal to 7 years. This involves crimes such as dowry, child abduction, theft, assault, chain- snatching, pick-pocketing etc. Previously, court had the power to grant the bail to the accused. After getting the bail the accused can remain out of the jail but had to appear in the court to face proceedings.

Now with the recent changes the power to grant bail has been transferred to the police authorities. Further, courts can only serve a notice to the accused which makes easy for the culprits to obtain the bail.

EFFECTS OF THE AMENDMENTS

These changes have multifarious effects on the society. Earlier, offenders with clout used to easily obtain the bail from court. Now it won’t be possible as the amendment will allow the honest police officials to carry out their duty and not only catch hold of the offenders but also to keep them in their clutches.

Secondly, this section incorporates the crimes which are of serious nature. But sometimes the innocent people and even children get entangled in its ambit which was a serious drawback. E.g. sometimes, innocent people who may include the juveniles were also subjected to arrest under the laws of Dowry prohibition. The new amendment totally curbs this practice. Another positive effect of the amendment is that there will be no compulsion of advocates to be present to get the bail.

The most negative effect of this amendment is no involvement of courts. Now the whole power has been transferred into the hands of police authorities which are unfortunately corrupt and already have a sullied image.

Changes are always made for the betterment of its subjects, and they should be welcomed by one and all. Equally true is the thing that people for whom we are designing the changes should be ready to understand and accept them. These amendments are neither good nor bad rather they are ahead of their time.