Anyatama Nayak writes about Good Samaritan Laws in India.
According to a report by the World Health Organization[1] “skilled and empowered bystanders play a crucial role in saving lives”. This shows that in case of emergency situations bystanders can save lives when they are in a position that enables them to help others and not be worried of the consequences of this act to negatively affect them. Here it is important that the bystanders are not deterred from providing help. Thus the report goes on to state that for enabling bystanders to help injured people it is necessary “to provide a supportive legal and ethical environment”. However in India there have been various instances of people being hesitant to help in the fear of either being trapped in the legal system or be held in detention unnecessarily.
One of the earliest instances of a provision to legal immunity for caring for the injured was in the case of Parmanand Katara v. Union of India[2]. The Supreme Court in the year 1989 had ruled that the State has an obligation to preserve life. The court had noted that the need to preserve life is of utmost importance. This includes the medical staff, police or any other bystander that may be present at the scene. This ruling was the earliest example of showing the necessity to allow the citizens to help people in danger and in need of care without fear of being unnecessarily harassed by the system.
The Supreme Court has finally approved the guidelines that were issued by the Centre for the protection of Good Samaritans at the hands of the police and other authorities. The Court’s decision is a crucial step in changing the mindset of people to help road accident victims and to be satisfied that they will not be harassed at by the police or in case of court trials. This has been noted by the SaveLife Foundation.
The SaveLife Foundation has been the driving force in this case. They had filed the original Public Interest Litigation in the court in the year of 2012 which has now led to these developments[3]. They were then granted an interim order on the necessity to frame specific guidelines to protect those who help in such emergency situations. The SaveLife Foundation had on the basis of their study had submitted that three out of four people hesitate to help in case of road accidents due to being scared of the hassles that they may have to face during the investigation of such cases. Needless to say such obstacles shouldn’t be present to make people hesitant to help others in case of emergency, especially when that help can be the difference between life and death.
After filing of the PIL, the Supreme Court then directed the Centre to issue guidelines in the year of 2014, until enacted by the Legislature. And then in the year of 2015 the Ministry Of Road Transport and Highways had notified the guidelines in a Gazette notification[4].
These guidelines were based on the recommendations of a three Judge bench committee that was headed by former Justice K S Radhakrishnan. They had listed 12 major recommendations with regard to setting up of State Road Safety Councils and the monitoring of the actions taken. Other recommendations included strict enforcement of penalties in case of drunken driving, over speeding and the breaking of traffic rules in general. The committee had however also stated that the lack of statutory backing in this regard makes it difficult to enforce the guidelines that are issued. This highlights the importance of a statutory law that the Union Government should enact laws. It was the recommendation of this committee to make these guidelines binding until the statute is made.
This recommendation has been followed by the Supreme Court. And now the Supreme Court in 2016 has made the guidelines binding on all States and Union territories and also approved these guidelines. The SaveLife Foundation has also drafted a bill for the Protection of Good Samaritans and this bill was introduced in the Parliament as a Private Members bill on December 12, 2014[5]. The need for statutory backing to these guidelines will help promote the act of helping in cases of Road accident victims.
The guidelines are just a starting step and it is essential now to have a legislature in this regard. It is highly necessary to keep in mind the number of death that occurs in the nation due to lack of help that couldn’t be given in time. The constitutional rights that have been given to every citizen include the Right to Life. And it thus also becomes the duty of the State to facilitate the amount of help and care an individual can gain at the hour of need.
[1] Prehospital trauma care systems, World Health Organization, Geneva , 2005, At Page 52 http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/43167/1/924159294X.pdf
[2] Parmanand Katara v. Union of India, 1989 AIR 2039
[3] SC gives “force of law” to guidelines protecting good samaritans who help accident victims, DnA India, http://www.dnaindia.com/locality/west-delhi/sc-gives-%E2%80%9Cforce-law%E2%80%9D-guidelines-protecting-good-samaritans-who-help-accident-victims-89309
[4]The Gazette of India, https://savelifefoundation.org/wp-content/themes/savelife/Documents/GazetteNotification_SOPforGS.pdf
[5] Guidelines to protect Good Samaritans soon, The Hindu, http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/guidelines-to-protect-good-samaritans-soon/article7094395.ece
