NEW DELHI: The road safety committee constituted by the Supreme Court has favored continuation of the cash cap $1.5 lakh for cashless treatment of road accident victims during the crucial first hour after the accident in its latest report submitted to the Supreme Court on April 6.
The cashless treatment scheme was notified during the ‘golden hour’ by the Center in February this year, during which an amount of money was fixed $1.5 lakh for treatment for up to seven days. In November 2025, the Supreme Court asked the three-member panel, headed by former Supreme Court Justice (retd) Abhay Manohar Sapre, to examine whether the cap should be removed completely or increased.
The committee said the scheme was still at an early stage and any review of the cap would have to await feedback from countries on implementing the scheme over the next six months to one year.
Taking up the report on Thursday, a bench of Justices JP Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan said: “The committee informed that it will continuously monitor and periodically seek reports from the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH). Once some concrete material is on record regarding the working of the scheme, the issue of cap will also be decided.”
Posting the order till May 12, the court asked the stakeholders concerned – General Insurance Council (GIC) along with petitioner Kishan Chand Jain and Senior Advocate Gaurav Agarwal who are assisting the court as amicus curiae to put forward their suggestions before the Justice Sapre Committee.
“The committee is of the view that this is an measure of extreme caution and to ensure that the scheme covers as many individuals as possible, the financial limit is currently set at Rs 1.5 lakh,” the report of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety said.
The committee reached this conclusion after obtaining the Ministry’s opinions, which were not in favor of increasing the maximum. The ministry said that the scheme aims to reduce deaths resulting from road accidents and provide initial assistance to victims during the “golden hour”, which is the crucial hour when the victim’s condition must be stabilized through immediate medical care.
The bench raised doubts as to whether this cap might be restrictive in providing effective medical assistance to victims. She said: “While the committee believes that monitoring of cases is required, what if the patient is admitted to the ICU and ICU? $The maximum limit of 1.58 lakh is exhausted within a day.
GIC, represented by senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, said, “The cashless scheme covers even the uninsured. Making it limitless will make the scheme unviable and open to misuse. According to us, $1.5 lakh is more than enough.”
Petitioner Jain, whose application was considered by the panel, stated that any victim of a road accident, who is critical for more than 7 days and whose hospitalization costs exceed Rs 1.5 lakh, should not face a situation where the scheme does not cover the cost of hospitalization.
He said that Section 162 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which provides for this scheme, should have a zero-cap on medical expenses.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications in its interaction with the committee, which also includes former bureaucrat Sanjay Bandopadhyay and road engineering scientist Nishi Mittal, talked about a pilot study conducted in six states/UTs namely Chandigarh, Assam, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Puducherry which found that 98% of victims incurred treatment costs $60,000 or less. It noted that only 1.36%, which is a small percentage, comes close to the higher cost range.
“The applicant (Jain) raises an important issue that requires constant monitoring to ensure that victims of road accidents are not denied medical care,” the committee said. At the same time, it added: “(State) resources must be best used for the greater public good and there is a need to protect against cases of ill-conceived road accidents and/or fraudulent claims.”
Going forward, the committee said a balance must be achieved by calling for periodic reports from all countries through the Ministry of Health, to ensure that “no injustice is done to any innocent victim.” The report added that this data will then determine how the time period for treatment will be extended, the links required to access medical assistance for road accident victims in government hospitals, and prevent misuse of the treatment scheme not related to road accidents.
