Karnataka’s Good Samaritan Act

Context: Karnataka is planning to bring a ‘Good Samaritan Act’. The main purpose of the act is to insulate citizens who help accident victims without the fear of any criminal or civil liability. The act will make the police and hospital authorities to adhere to Good Samaritan guidelines. The guidelines will be made binding on them.

Why there is a need for such a law?

• People hesitate to rescue accident victims due to the fear of police questioning, hospital admission processes and subsequent rigors of legal procedure.
• Devoid of timely help, many victims die. There have been incidents of accident victims being denied treatment at hospitals or delay in admitting victims at a hospital.
• Even though the Supreme Court made the central guidelines binding on all, there is a lack of accountability among the police and hospital authorities. So, there is a need to define who should implement and who should be made accountable. Karnataka is working towards them and address them in the state law.
• The Law Commission of India on its 201^st Report has observed that the life of 50% of those victims killed in road accidents could have been saved if timely assistance had been provided.

Main proposals

• The draft of the Act has included a punitive clause for those officials who violate the guidelines.
• It promises cashless treatment for accident victims during the first 48 hours, which is considered to be the golden hour and provides a victim with a maximum entitlement of Rs. 25,000 per episode.
• Those who are helping the victims may also be get rewarded.

What has been done by the central government?

At present there is no national legislation on this subject. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has notified Good Samaritan guidelines in May 2015. A Standard Operating Procedure to examine Good Samaritans was released by the ministry in January 2016. The main features of the guidelines are:

• The Good Samaritans who help the accident victims shall not be subjected to civil/criminal liability and/or forced to be a witness.
• The Good Samaritans should be treated respectfully without any discrimination on the grounds of gender, religion, nationality and caste.
• The police should not compel the Good Samaritan to disclose his/her name, address, identity and other such details.
• The police should allow the Good Samaritan to leave after providing the information available to him/her and does not intend to be a witness.
• If a Good Samaritan offers to be a witness, then the examination should be conducted only on a single occasion at a time and place convenient to the Good Samaritan.
• State governments may institute a system of reward and compensation to Good Samaritans to encourage them and also initiate action against those erring officials.
• The concerned Superintendent or Deputy Commissioner of Police will be responsible to ensure that all the procedures are implemented and followed throughout their respective jurisdictions.

Timeline

• 2012: SaveLIFE foundation had filed a PIL on the Supreme Court.
• October 2014: The Supreme Court asked the Central government to come up with necessary guidelines to protect Good Samaritans.
• May 2015: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had notified Good Samaritan guidelines.
• January 2016: A Standard Operating Procedure to examine Good Samaritans was released by the ministry.
• March 2016: The Supreme Court approved the guidelines. The guideline is made binding on all states/UTs of India.

What has been done by the Supreme Court?

Supreme Court has approved Union Government’s guidelines to protect Good Samaritans, who help road accident victims, from being unnecessarily harassed by police or any other authority. These guidelines based on the recommendations K S Radhakrishnan committee were approved by the SC bench comprising justices V Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra.

These guidelines will be binding on all states and Union Territories until the Union government enacts a law to this effect.

What has been done in the Parliament?

A Private Members Bill for the protection of Good Samaritans was introduced in the Parliament on December 12, 2014. It was drafted by the SaveLIFE foundation. However, there has been no progress on the Bill.

What has been done by other states?

The governments of Rajasthan and Delhi are in the process of drafting similar bills. An advisory to the police and hospitals asking them not to harass Good Samaritans was issued by the Delhi Government after the December 16 gang-rape incident, where the victim was unattended on the road for a long time.

Way forward

As the matter concerns the police, hospitals and road transport officials it is necessary for all the state governments to come up with their own Acts. There is an urgent need for statutory backing to the guidelines and Standard operating Procedure issued by the central government. As per the data available, in the year 2014 the number of fatalities due to road accidents was 1,41,000. So, the countries like India with huge number of fatalities, should do everything possible to make people help the accident victims to save the precious life of the people during the ‘golden hour’.