Legal Provisions of Section 282 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Conveying person by water for hire in unsafe or overloaded vessel:
This section penalises conveying a person by water for hire in any unsafe or over-loaded vessel. It says that whoever conveys either with knowledge or with negligence, or causes to be conveyed for hire, any person by water in any vessel when the state of that vessel is such as to endanger that person’s life or it is so loaded as to endanger his life, shall be punished with simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term extending up to six months, or with fine extending up to one thousand rupees, or with both.
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The prosecution must establish either knowledge or negligence on the part of the accused when he conveys any person by water in any vessel. The section also applies when a person is caused to be conveyed by water in any vessel on payment of money. In either case the condition of the vessel must be such, or it must be so overloaded, as to be dangerous to the life of that person who has boarded it.
The Supreme Court has held in V. R. Bhate v. State, that where there was no barricading at the jetty at a port and neither any policeman nor any other authorised person of the motor launch firm was there to control traffic and supervise allied matters, and on arrival of the launch the passengers wanted to come out while the others waiting wished to board it, and in the stampede the launch got disbalanced and capsized, no conviction under section 282 could be maintained, even though liability under section 58 of the Inland Steam Vessels Act for overloading did exist.
The offence under this section is cognizable, bailable and non-compoundable, and is triable by any magistrate.