The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to put in place a Good Samaritan law to protect bystanders who reach road accident victims to hospitals against harassment by police and courts, where they are later summoned as witnesses.
On a PIl by NGO Savelife Foundation, the bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the Centre to pass an executive order giving effect to a set of recommendations made by a high-level Committee headed by an Additional Secretary in Ministry of Home Affairs. As the nodal ministry — Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had no objections, the bench asked Centre to immediately implement the same.
The Committee was of the opinion that Good Samaritans need to be encouraged and be exempted from civil and criminal liability, unless some malafide on their part can be shown. Those who intimate police of accidents should not be harassed by police to reveal their name or address nor should they be summoned as witnesses in court.