Chhattisgarh High Court: The Division Bench of Ramesh Sinha, CJ., and Parth Prateem Sahu, J., took suo moto cognizance of alarming condition of traffic on roads, leading to increase in road accidents in Chhattisgarh and sought responses from State officials of National Highway Authority of India (‘NHAI’).
The Court considered reports from various daily newspapers highlighting the alarming rate of road accidents and severe traffic safety issues in the State. One such incident was reported by Dainik Bhaskar, about the accident caused due to failure of brakes of the truck carrying 36 persons of the Baiga tribe, causing death of 19. Another report, by Bilaspur Bhaskar, described the poor trafic condition of the roads and highways in the State and highlighted that in the last four years, 107 deaths could be attributed to drinking and driving.
The Court expressed concern over the alarming situation and directed that every attempt must be made on part of the State to take all necessary measures to remove all possibilities which may lead to any casualty in a road accident. The Court added that while ex-gratia compensation can provide some assistance to the bereaved families, it cannot replace the loss of a breadwinner.
Following the decision in S. Rajaseekaran (II) v. Union of India, (2018) 13 SCC 516, where the Supreme Court had issued detailed directions and guidelines regarding what action the State and concerned authorities should take so as to minimize road accidents, the Court issued following directions to State authorities:
-
to file their personal affidavits indicating their compliance with the S. Rajaseekaran guidelines;
-
to bring on record the circulars and orders issued by them relating to road safety and minimization of road accidents in the past;
-
to inform the Court about the constitution of District Road Safety Committees in the State and their respective functioning as per the Supreme Court guidelines.
The Court granted four weeks’ time for the respondents to reply and scheduled the next hearing for 25-06-2024.
[Court on its own motion, 2024 SCC OnLine Chh 4449, order dated 24-05-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the Respondent: Prafull N. Bharat, Advocate General for State, Ramakant Mishra, Deputy Solicitor General for the Union of India, Dheeraj Wankhede, Advocate
