New Delhi: Today, i.e. on 30th day of March, the honourable Supreme Court of India has appeared approving the guidelines which the Central Government had issued earlier, in which the ‘Good Samaritans’ who are saving lives of victims of the Road mishaps need not fear harassment by police or other authorities now.
The decision was taken by the concerned bench of the Apex Court, which comprising of Justice- V. Gopala Gowda and Justice Arun Mishra. Moreover, the bench further asked the Government to publish the said Guidelines among large number of population, so that in effect, the people who held the others in trouble will not be victimised by the authority figures.
In the core of the said guidelines, it can be seen that if any bystander, who sought to rush to save the lives of the victims of the accident, then he should not be subjected to any civil or criminal liability or even he should be asked forcefully to give attend court proceedings as a witness.
The guidelines also made it voluntary for the Good Samaritans, that if they can disclose any of their personal information or even they can offer to be a “witness”, in the event he or she being an ‘eyewitness’ to the incident. It is also made clear that such volunteer person’s examination is also required to be done only “on a single occasion” and also without even “harassment or intimidation”.
Moreover, as per such guidelines, further, the State governments are also made obligatory to follow that if anyone saves the life of another who being the victim of road side accident, then such persons can be awarded by the State Governments, and also can be offered with the compensation for encouragement to others who can be next Good Samaritans. Moreover, the State Governments are also made obligatory to follow the practice of initiating action against the officials or police personnel who found violating such guidelines.
It has been found in the various studies and surveys that the large number of population in India are being discouraged from reacting to the victims of accident, due to fear in their mind that they may be required to take part in the legal snarls.
Adv. Faim Khalilkhan Pathan