Supreme Court
The Supreme Court asked the Central Government questions about the scheme of Golden Hour Cashless treatment in a road accident. The court said why this scheme has not been implemented yet. Also, Justice Oka asked the Center, what is the purpose of the construction of the highway, when so many people are dying in a road accident.
Following the questions raised by the Supreme Court, the central government told the court on Monday (April 28) that the cashless treatment scheme of road accident victims will be implemented within a week during “Golden Hour”. Secretary of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH), Government of India, attended. He said that according to Section 162 (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the plan of “Golden Hour” will be implemented within a week.
Court raised questions about not implementing the scheme
Justice Abhay S. A bench of Oka and Justice Ujjwal Bhuiyan heard the case related to not complying with its earlier order to prepare a plan under Section 162 (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Where the court asked the Center questions why this scheme has not been implemented yet. The court listed the case on May 13, 2025 to comply with the case.
What is a golden hour?
Under Section 162 (2), the central government has to serve cashless treatment to motor accident victims during “Golden Hour”. Golden hours are called the time when the victim is taken to the hospital in an hour of injury after being victim of an accident on the road and death can be avoided. However, Section (162) came into force on April 1, 2022, but no plan has been implemented so far due to this section. Due to this, the court asked the Center questions, on which the Center said that the scheme will be implemented in the coming week.
What did the Center say about the scheme?
During the hearing, Secretary of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) appeared before the court through video conferencing, as he was already summoned to fail to follow the directions of the court. Justice Oka told the secretary that he is contesting the court for not complying with the order and not also filing applications for expansion. The bench asked the secretary to tell when the scheme will be implemented.
The secretary informed the court that a draft was prepared but the government faced a hindrance due to the issues raised by the General Insurance Council (GIC).
Regarding this, Justice Oka commented that if the secretary could not follow the instructions of the court, then he should have knocked on the door of the court. He noticed that despite the construction of the large highway, people were dying due to lack of gold -overs cashless treatment scheme, they questioned the purpose of building highway when basic health facilities were not ensured.
“People are dying in a road accident”
People are dying in a road accident. You are building big highways, but people are dying due to no facility. So far, there is no scheme for golden our treatment, so what is the purpose of building such a highway? In addition to the Center, Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee said that MRTH was trying to resolve the rest of the challenges which came up during the process of implementing the scheme. On this, Justice Oka said that the scheme could have improved later, but it should have started.
Justice Oka said, what have you been doing for the last 2 years. What is the purpose of this scheme, how many people have died due to not getting treatment.