Supreme Court Issues Pan-India Expressway Safety Directions

The Supreme Court of India issued pan-India directions on road safety, targeting expressways and national highways after a bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and A.S. Chandurkar flagged a stark disparity: national highways make up just 2% of India's total road length yet account for nearly 30% of all road fatalities. The court warned that expressways must not become corridors of peril, signaling judicial intent to hold authorities operationally accountable across the entire network. The directions carry nationwide applicability, meaning state governments and highway agencies cannot treat compliance as optional or jurisdiction-specific. The bench's framing around the fatality-to-length ratio establishes a clear evidentiary baseline, which courts can use to measure future enforcement lapses and penalize inaction. Authorities responsible for highway design, signage, emergency response infrastructure, and speed enforcement will face heightened scrutiny. The ruling sets the stage for follow-on compliance hearings, where agencies will likely be required to report corrective measures against measurable safety benchmarks.