Supreme Court issues nationwide road safety guidelines for highways

The Supreme Court issued pan-India road safety guidelines, banning parking on highways and ordering strict enforcement measures. It directed authorities to remove illegal structures, improve monitoring and ensure safer roads, stressing that protecting human life is a constitutional obligation

New Delhi: Observing that expressways must not become corridors of peril due to administrative lethargy or infrastructural gaps, the Supreme Court has issued a slew of pan-India guidelines for enhancing road safety, including a ban on parking of heavy vehicles on such roads.

A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and AS Chandurkar pointed out that national highways constitute two percent of India’s total road length but account for nearly 30 percent of all road fatalities.

---

The bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and AS Chandurkar issued directions to the Ministry of Road Transport, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and states and Union Territories to make roads safer, observing that the loss of even a single life to avoidable hazards like illegal parking or blackspots represents a failure of the State’s protective umbrella.

“The loss of even a single life to avoidable hazards like illegal parking or blackspots represents a failure of the State’s protective umbrella. The ‘Right to Life’ enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India is not merely a guarantee against the unlawful taking of life, but a positive mandate upon the State to ensure a safe environment where human life is preserved and valued,” the top court said in its order of April 13.

It passed the order in a suo motu case registered in the aftermath of the loss of 34 lives in successive road accidents on November 2 and 3, 2025, in Phalodi in Rajasthan and Rangareddy in Telangana, citing systemic negligence and catastrophic infrastructure failures that led to these casualties.

The bench, which issued pan-India directions, said, “Recognising the safety of the commuter as an integral facet of the right to live with dignity as a constitutional obligation under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, it is necessary in the interest to address the systemic root causes. These interim directions are issued in exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India.”

The bench said the court reiterates that no pecuniary or administrative constraint can outweigh the sanctity of human life, and the strict timelines provided reflect the urgency of this constitutional obligation.

It directed that no heavy or commercial vehicle shall park or stop on any national highway carriageway or paved shoulder except at a designated bay, lay-bye or wayside amenity.

It said enforcement of the direction shall be effected through the Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS), real-time alerts to state police, GPS-based timestamped photographic evidence and integrated eChallan generation.

“These directions must be complied with by the officials and personnel of the National Highways Authority of India, state police and state transport department. The district magistrates of the concerned districts shall set up a standard operating procedure for this purpose with regard to periodical inspections and patrolling by all these authorities. These directions must be complied with within 60 days from the date of this order,” it said.

One of the important directions included prohibition with immediate effect on construction or operation of any new dhaba, eatery or commercial structure within the Right of Way (ROW) of any national highway.

“District magistrates shall enforce demolition or removal of all new or existing unauthorised structures within 60 days, in terms of the CNH Act procedure and SOP dated August 7, 2025,” the bench directed.

It said no department, authority or local body shall grant or renew any licence, NOC or trade approval for any site within highway safety zones without prior NHAI or PWD clearance, and all such existing licences for such sites shall be reviewed within 30 days.

The bench further directed, “In every district wherever the national highway passes through, the concerned district magistrate shall, within 15 days of this order, constitute a district highway safety task force, comprising officers of the district administration, police, NHAI (or concerned land-owning agency), PWD and local bodies.”

Similarly, it further directed surveillance, patrolling and monitoring of illegal parking on national highways, operationalisation of the Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) comprising cameras, speed detectors, emergency response and wayside amenities, construction of truck lay-bye facilities, identification of accident blackspots, proper lighting and institutional coordination, reporting and road safety committees.

It directed MoRTH to file a compliance report after seeking data from different states and agencies before the court within 75 days from the date of uploading of this order.

“The respective authorities may take appropriate steps to coordinate with and facilitate all stakeholders for the purpose of carrying out the directions passed by this court. It is further made clear that, in case there are issues regarding compliance, the parties are at liberty to approach this court,” the bench said, as it posted the matter for compliance after two months.

On December 15 last year, the top court mulled formulating pan-India guidelines to prevent road accidents on expressways and national highways.