NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought assistance of Attorney General KK Venugopal to deal with a plea seeking cashless treatment for road accident victims. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that a copy of the petition be served on the office of AG to assist the court.
"As we understand, the submission advanced by the counsel for the petitioner is that certain arrangements should be made by the Union of India as well as by the state governments so that some assistance can be rendered immediately, subject to certain guidelines which may also take into consideration the financial condition of the victim," the bench said while posting the same for July 23.
PIL filed by Delhi resident Rakesh Kumar Singhal also sought direction to the Centre to issue appropriate orders to all hospitals and medical institutions to provide free medical treatment to those injured in road accidents. According to the petitioner due to frequent road accidents, the victims are not able to get appropriate treatment in the hospitals and the financial condition also comes in the way as a hazard.
The plea stated that nless treatment is provided to the road accident victims by some measure, the right under Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution is jeopardised. "While India has less than three per cent of the world's vehicles, it accounts for about 11 per cent of the world's road deaths. In 2016, our roads saw 4,80,652 accidents, injuring 4,94,624 and killing 1,50,785 persons. This translates to, on an average, into 1,317 road accidents and 413 fatalities everyday; or 55 road accidents and 17 deaths every hour." .