An engineer is not vicariously liable for pothole accidents after the defect-liability period expires.

Respondent No. 2 complained that Mansoor Khurshid died after his motorcycle skidded on a pothole allegedly left uncovered during pipeline work.

Police registered a case and filed a charge sheet against the petitioner, a BWSSB Additional Chief Engineer, for offences under Sections 279 and 304A IPC read with Sections 115 and 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act; the petitioner sought to quash the proceedings under Section 482 CrPC

The petitioner contended that the pipeline work had been completed in November 2019 and its defect-liability period ended on 10 November 2020, before the accident in September 2021.

The State opposed quashing, asserting that the work remained incomplete and that the petitioner was responsible for it.

1. Whether the criminal proceedings against the petitioner should be quashed under Section 482 CrPC when the pipeline work and its defect-liability period had ended before the accident

2. Whether the petitioner could be held criminally liable for the accident merely because he had been entrusted with the pipeline work, despite the record indicating that he was not responsible for road maintenance at the time of the accident

Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure empowers the High Court to quash criminal proceedings where their continuation would amount to an abuse of the process of the court.

Sections 279 and 304A IPC concern, respectively, rash or negligent driving on a public way and causing death by a rash or negligent act; the judgment also identifies Sections 115 and 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act among the offences alleged.

The Court applied the principle that a person cannot be held vicariously liable for a road defect solely because pipeline work had earlier been entrusted to that person, without a continuing connection to the work or responsibility for the road at the time of the accident.

The Court accepted that the pipeline work had been completed in 2019 and that the defect-liability period had expired in November 2020; the State did not seriously dispute that account.

The accident occurred in September 2021, when the petitioner was an Additional Chief Engineer and was not connected with maintenance of the road.

The charge-sheet material also indicated that the deceased had ridden in the wrong direction and fallen into the pothole.

In those circumstances, the Court found no sufficient basis to hold the petitioner responsible for the pothole merely because he had been associated with the earlier pipeline work; continuing the prosecution would therefore abuse the process of the court.