'What Use Of Highways If People Die There?' : After Supreme Court Rebuke, Centre Agrees To Notify 'Golden Hour' Treatment Scheme

The Supreme Court on Monday (April 28) was told by the Centre that a scheme for cashless treatment of road accident victims during the "golden hour" would be brought into force within one week.

“Secretary of MoRTH, Government of India, appears. He states that the scheme for golden hour in accordance with Section 162(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 will be brought into force within a period of one week from today…Learned Secretary states that the government tenders an apology for non-compliance with direction contained in paragraph 8 of order dated January 8, 2025”, the Court recorded.

A bench of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing the case concerning the non-compliance of its earlier order directing the Centre to frame the scheme under Section 162(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. The Court listed the matter of May 13, 2025 for compliance.

Under Section 162(2), the Central Government is required to frame a scheme for providing cashless treatment to motor accident victims during the “golden hour”, which is defined under Section 2(12-A) of the Act as the period of one hour following a traumatic injury when prompt treatment has the highest likelihood of preventing death. Though Section 162 came into force on April 1, 2022, no scheme has yet been implemented.

During the hearing, the Secretary of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) appeared before the Court via video conferencing, as he had been summoned earlier for failing to comply with the Court's directions.

Justice Oka told the Secretary that he was in contempt of court for not complying with the order and for not even filing an application seeking an extension. The bench asked the Secretary to specify when the scheme would be framed.

The Secretary informed the Court that a draft had been prepared but the government faced a roadblock due to issues raised by the General Insurance Council (GIC). Justice Oka remarked that if the Secretary could not comply with the Court's directions, he should have approached the Court. He observed that despite the construction of large highways, people were dying due to the lack of a scheme providing golden hour treatment, questioning the purpose of building highways if basic healthcare facilities were not ensured.

“People are dying in road accidents. You are constructing huge Highways but people are dying there because there is no facility. There is no scheme for golden hour treatment. What is the use of constructing so many Highways?”, Justice Oka said.

Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee for the Centre submitted that MoRTH was trying to address other challenges identified during the process, which were important for the smooth rollout of the scheme. Justice Oka responded that improvements could always be made later, but the scheme had to start somewhere.

Banerjee further explained that GIC was not cooperating. He told the Court that GIC wanted to check the status of insurance policies before releasing funds and contended that it should be responsible for making final payments instead of the State Health Agency (SHA). The Government, however, was of the view that the SHA was better suited to handle payments.

Justice Oka pointed out that the scheme could be formulated if funds were available. The Secretary assured that the centre will now notify the scheme. When asked by the Court whether the scheme could be notified by tomorrow, the Secretary said that it had already been approved and only legal vetting was pending. However, if necessary, it could be notified immediately.

When the Secretary said that under the Act, the management of the scheme had to be entrusted to an authority designated by the Central Government, Justice Oka pointed out that another agency could be appointed if GIC was not cooperating. The Secretary assured the Court that they would do so.

Justice Oka asked, “For the last 2 years what have you been doing? What is the use of such beneficial provision? How many people have died because they could not get the treatment?”

Amicus Curiae Senior Advocate Gaurav Agrawal explained the issue, highlighting that for insured vehicles, the insurance system already existed, and as per the government, GIC should make payments without having control over them. He said that as per the government, budgetary provisions had been made for uninsured and hit-and-run vehicles.

The amicus suggested that the problem could be resolved by authorising the SHA to release payments directly to hospitals. “Now there is some hitch about who is the deciding authority to release the payment to the hospital. So this can be resolved by simply saying that the SHA will do this”, he said.

In its order, the Court recorded the Secretary's submission that the golden hour scheme would be implemented within a week. The Government tendered an apology for non-compliance with the Court's direction to frame the scheme.

The Court also dealt with the non-implementation of Section 164A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which provides for a scheme to grant interim relief to claimants. The provision came into force on April 1, 2022, for three years but no scheme had been framed so far. The Court said that this failure had to be deprecated and directed the Centre to frame the scheme under Section 164A as expeditiously as possible and within four months from April 28, 2025.

“Such an important provision has remained unimplemented for the last 3 years. This failure has to be deprecated. We therefore direct the central government to frame the scheme under section 164A of the MV Act as expeditiously as possible and in any event within a period of 4 months from today”, the Court held.

Case no. – WP (C) No. 295/2012

Case Title – S. Rajaseekaran v. Union of India and Ors.

Click Here To Read/Download Order