Right to safe travel on National Highways part of right to life: Supreme Court order

The Supreme Court has declared that the safety of commuters against road accidents and the right to safe passage on highways are part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

“National Highways constitute approximately 2% of India’s total road length but account for nearly 30% of all road fatalities. A road, particularly a high-speed expressway, must not become a corridor of peril due to administrative lethargy or infrastructural gaps. The loss of even a single life to avoidable hazards like illegal parking or blackspots, etc., represents a failure of the state’s protective umbrella,” a Bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Atul S. Chandurkar observed in an April 13 order.