The Supreme Court of India has been recently taken interest to issue guidelines that will safeguard the persons who take initiative to help victims of road accidents. Hence, the harassment faced from the police have come to an end and there will not be any compulsion to reveal the personal details of the person. In April 2013, a girl and her mother met with an accident in Jaipur and nobody took interest to help them out. As a consequence of the accident they succumbed to the injuries. Due to several like reasons the Supreme Court has issued direction to the Government of India to give executive orders so that within a period of three months the Samaritans who help the road accident victims will get safeguards under law.
The said change is also the result of the recommendations given by Skandan Committee which states the persons helping the accident victims should be excluded from the liabilities under civil and criminal law. Moreover, the doctors shall face disciplinary actions if they don’t attend a person met with an accident according to the standards provided by the Medical Council of India. The MCI along with the Health Ministry will give guidelines to the hospital authorities regarding the admitting of persons met with accident and specifically directing that the persons who help the victims should not be charged with any expenses. Also, where the hospitals fail to obey the guidelines shall get their license cancelled.
The Supreme Court interfered in such matters due to the increasing number of deaths that are caused as a result of road accidents especially in India. The step taken by the Apex Court was in the interest of the nation. The Samaritans will not have to face any legal consequence for the reason that he helped a person met with road accident. The Supreme Court bench embraced of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman was giving their direction when considering the petition filed by NGO SaveLIFE Foundation. The SaveLIFE Foundation submitted that as per the survey conducted by the NGO there are many people who come forward to help the accident victims but they are going a step backward due to the legal formalities that they have to undergo. The Supreme Court has also constituted a Committee consisting of three members on 22nd April, 2014 with former Judge Justice K S Radhakrishnan as its Chairman to study the details regarding road accidents.
