Supreme Court pulls up Centre for missing deadline on establishing cashless medical treatment scheme for motor accident victims | India News

NEW Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Centre relating to delays in establishing a cashless medical treatment scheme for motor accident victims. The court docket summoned the highway transport ministry secretary for clarification.
Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan famous non-compliance with their January 8 order.
“The time granted has 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,” said the bench.
The court docket noticed that senior authorities officers reply severely solely upon being summoned.
Additional solicitor basic Vikramjeet Banerjee, representing the Centre, cited “bottle necks” as causes.
The court docket responded firmly, stating that the laws was meant to profit widespread individuals and forestall lack of lives as a result of lack of cashless treatment amenities. They warned of potential contempt proceedings.
The secretary was instructed to seem on April 28 for rationalization.
The court docket moreover instructed the transport division secretary to offer written directives to district magistrates relating to importing hidden hit-and-run claims on the GIC portal.
On January 8, the court docket had directed the Centre to create a scheme for cashless treatment throughout the ‘golden hour’ as per regulation.
Referencing Section 162(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the federal government was ordered to implement the scheme by March 14.
The Act defines golden hour below Section 2 (12-A) because the essential one-hour interval post-trauma when medical intervention is best.
The court docket emphasised that monetary and procedural delays usually end in fatalities.
It highlighted the Centre’s statutory obligation below Section 162 to create a cashless treatment scheme, supporting Article 21’s proper to life assure.
The regulation requires insurance coverage firms to offer treatment for accident victims throughout the golden hour in response to the MV Act scheme.
Despite being efficient from April 1, 2022, the scheme remained unimplemented, necessitating court docket intervention.
The Centre proposed a draft limiting treatment value to Rs 1.5 lakh for seven days, which the petitioner’s counsel deemed insufficient.
The GIC was assigned to handle hit-and-run compensation claims and develop a streamlined portal. This portal would facilitate doc uploads, notify states of deficiencies, and scale back processing delays. As of July 31, 2024, 921 hit-and-run compensation claims remained pending as a result of documentation points. The court docket directed GIC to resolve these issues.
GIC was instructed to finish portal improvement and report compliance by March 14, 2025.