NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed States and Union Territories to develop a mechanism for a swift response to road accident victims.
The court observed that the road accident victims is on the rise and passed the necessary directions after being concerned about how the victims did not get immediate help.
Granting six months time to states and UTs, a two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, said they must work on having swift response protocols in every state at the grassroots level for road accident victims.
The order of the SC came on an application filed by advocate Kishan Chand Jain, who requested the SC to direct that a protocol should be in place for road accident victims. The lead petitioner in the case, S Rajaseekaran, sought appropriate directions to the Union for prompt medical care to road accident victims.
Clarifying on the issue of working hours of drivers, the court directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to convene meetings of the departments concerned of States and UTs.
Earlier in a hearing, the Supreme Court slammed the Centre for not complying with its earlier order and delaying in formulating a scheme for cashless medical treatment to motor accident victims.
Taking strong exception to the fact that January 8 order was not followed by the Centre, the two-judge bench of the top court summoned the secretary of the Ministry of Road Transport seeking an explanation from him.
The apex court clarified that the time earlier granted to the Centre had already expired on March 15, 2025.
"This is a serious breach and violation of not only orders of this court, but a violation of implementing a very beneficial legislation. We direct the secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, to appear on video-conferencing and explain why the directions of this court were not complied with," the bench of the top court had said.
After facing criticism from the SC, Additional Solicitor General Vikramjeet Banerjee, representing the Centre, admitted to facing some bottlenecks in implementing the scheme.
But the bench did not move by these submissions of Banerjee and told him the importance of the legislation, which aims to save lives by ensuring cashless treatment for accident victims during the critical 'golden hour '- period immediately following an accident when medical intervention is most likely to be successful.
"Potential life-saving benefits of the scheme. This is your own legislation. Many road accident victims are losing their lives because there is no facility for cashless treatment. This is for the benefit of common people. We are putting you to notice; we'll take action under contempt if necessary," the top court added.