Supreme Court proposes no fuel for uninsured vehicles, seeks Centre's plan

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court announced plans to deny fuel to uninsured vehicles and enlisted the Central government and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to devise a pilot project. The court also ordered the creation of technology-driven enforcement methods to automatically identify and penalize such vehicles.

The bench, comprising justice Sanjay Karol and Prashant Kumar Mishra, aimed to address the issue of uninsured vehicles and ensure timely compensation for road accident victims. They emphasized that nearly 56% of vehicles on Indian roads are uninsured, causing delays or defeat in the statutory safeguard for compensating accident victims.

The court directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and IRDAI to develop a pilot project wherein fuel supply would be contingent on a vehicle's insurance status. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had previously expressed no objection to the proposal. To bolster enforcement, the court suggested integrating ANPR cameras with insurance databases to automatically issue e-challans to uninsured vehicles.

Traffic police would be equipped with handheld devices or mobile apps linked to these databases for real-time insurance status verification. The court also directed an increase in the mandatory third-party insurance tenure for new vehicles from three to four years and from five to six years for new two-wheelers. Additionally, the court revived earlier guidelines for expediting the disposal of old motor accident compensation cases and ensuring informed consumer choices by providing standardized customer option forms and easy-to-understand policy information.