Supreme Court Holds Right To Trauma Care as Integral Part of Right To Life

The Supreme Court has ruled that the right to trauma care for citizens is an integral part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution, directing all states and Union territories to operationalise the single emergency helpline number '112' within three months. A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and A S Chandurkar also ordered the establishment of a functional good samaritan grievance redressal system across the country .

The order was passed on Tuesday on a plea filed by the Savelife Foundation, which argued that trauma care must be recognised as a matter of right in India's public law system. The court observed that when a person suffers an accident requiring urgent trauma care, they often experience shock, disorientation, and helplessness, forced to hope that bystanders will help them get the care they need .

"In such a situation, every minute spent without medical intervention or urgent care significantly narrows the scope for survival. Swiftness, is quite literally, like medicine," the bench said. The court emphasised that a robust trauma care mechanism must take a "bottom-up approach" accounting for various stakeholders, noting that bystanders often hesitate to help due to fear of legal proceedings, being summoned as witnesses, or the psychological weight of the situation .

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To address these barriers, the bench directed the Centre to issue a medical rescue protocol for trauma cases within three months, which all states and UTs must operationalise thereafter. All states/UTs must ensure full AIS-125 compliance across all registered ambulances (public and private), mandate GPS/VLTD fitment with real-time integration with helpline 112, and conduct periodic structured audits with compliance reporting to a designated union-level authority within three months .

The bench asked the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to issue guidelines prescribing the data format for a trauma registry within eight weeks, with all states/UTs establishing state trauma registries covering all medical facilities and linking them to a coordinated trauma registry within four months. Additionally, states that have not yet adopted the cashless treatment of road accident victims scheme 2025—PM RAHAT—must fully operationalise it within three months .

The court also directed the Centre, states, and UTs to undertake sustained, structured, multi-lingual mass-media campaigns covering helpline 112, good samaritan protection under Section 134A of the Motor Vehicles Act, the grievance redressal system, and the PM RAHAT cashless treatment scheme, with compliance reporting within one month. The matter has been listed for review after four months .

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