Supreme Court asks panel to build framework on road safety
Recently, a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India has underlined the urgent need to frame guidelines for road safety in India.
- The Supreme Court has directed a committee to frame guidelines for road safety. The committee will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice MA Sapre.
- The committee will endeavor to frame state-specific guidelines for electronic monitoring and enforcement of road safety in states as per Section 136A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
- The bench also acknowledged that over-speeding is the main cause of fatal accidents on Indian roads.
Motor Vehicles Act, 1988
- This act was brought to replace the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. It was implemented from 1st July, 1989.
- Amendments have been made in many of its sections. The latest amendments have been done in the year 2022. Provisions related to third party insurance and constitution of Motor Accident Claims Tribunal has been made by these recent amendments.
- Section 136(2) of the Act mandates the Center to make rules for electronic monitoring and enforcement of road safety including “speed cameras, closed-circuit television cameras”, etc.
- Sections 215A and B of the Act provide for the constitution of a National Road Safety Board as an advisory body to the states for electronic monitoring.
- According to a report by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, a total of 4, 12,432 road accidents were registered in the year 2021.
- To deal with these accidents, steps like dashboard for road accidents, system of cashless treatment, identification of good and helpful people and establishment of National Road Safety Council have been taken.
Source – The Hindu
