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S. Rajaseekaran v. Union of India and Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2025 INSC 45Decided 8 Jan 2025
Writ Petition (C) No. 295 of 2012
Justice Abhay S. Oka

Background

This long-running public interest case concerns road safety and the implementation of Section 162 of the Motor Vehicles Act, which requires the Central Government to create a scheme for free, cashless treatment of road accident victims during the "golden hour": the critical first hour after a traumatic injury when prompt medical care can prevent death. Although Section 162 and a related Motor Vehicle Accident Fund had been in force since April 2022, the Central Government still had not actually notified any scheme for cashless treatment, despite having placed only a draft "concept note" on record. The case also tracked the separate but related "hit and run" compensation scheme, under which thousands of accident-victim claims remained pending due to incomplete paperwork.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that the golden-hour scheme is meant to protect the fundamental right to life under Article 21, and that the Central Government's prolonged failure to notify it, years after the law was passed, was unacceptable delay in fulfilling a clear statutory obligation. It ordered the Government to finalize and notify the scheme by 14 March 2025, with no further extensions, and to file it in court along with an explanation of how it would be implemented. On the hit-and-run compensation front, the Court directed the insurance body (GIC) to process pending claims using a defined list of seven supporting documents and to expedite building an online portal to track and resolve document deficiencies.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can and will set firm, non-negotiable deadlines to force government bodies to implement statutory welfare schemes, like cashless emergency treatment for accident victims, when years of delay start to undermine the constitutional right to life itself; citizens and public-interest litigants have real recourse when a government sits on a legal obligation.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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