Supreme Court surprised at ‘quiet’ rollout of motor accident victim compensation scheme

Section 164A of the Motor Vehicles Act authorises the Centre to frame a scheme for interim relief to victims of motor vehicle accidents.

The direction came after amicus curiae Gaurav Agarwal told the Bench that on April 28, 2025, a Bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka (since retired) had deprecated the delay in notifying the scheme framed under Section 164A of the Act and directed it to notify the scheme in four months. Despite that it hasn’t been notified.

The Bench expressed surprise after Agarwal said he was hearing about this for the first time and that he was not aware of the scheme having been rolled out.

“Mr Banerjee, there is a long line of judgments… that publication is needed for a law, and that the law should be publicly known. This is an unannounced law, otherwise?”

The Bench also directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to ensure that the annual reports on road accidents were published within six months from the expiry of the calendar year after it was pointed out that the annual report of 2024 was published only on June 11, 2026, and the 2025 report was yet to be published. It asked the MoRTH to respond to a contempt petition on the issue.

During the hearing, the Bench said in a lighter vein that judges would sit on dharna at the main gate of the Delhi High Court if concrete measures were not taken to ensure pedestrian safety on Mathura Road before November 25.