MHA secretary to head ad-hoc panel on road safety

The Supreme Court today nominated Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs as ad-hoc chairman of a committee which has been deliberating on broad guidelines for protection of good Samaritans rendering assistance to accident victims.
The need for appointing the ad-hoc chairman of the committee arose as former Delhi High Court judge V S Agrawal, who was heading the panel, had expressed his inability to continue due to personal reasons.
However, the panel, before his resignation had filed an interim report on March 5, and the apex court said the ad-hoc chairman will look for completion of the report within three months.

"In view of the fact that the Committee has already filed an Interim Report dated March 5, 2013 and Justice V S Agarwal has resigned and the Committee has to submit its report only in respect of questions posed by this Court, we request the remaining committee members to pursue and submit its report with reference to the above issues for which we extend the time by another three months.
"We also nominate Additional Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs as Ad-hoc Chairman of the Committee for completion of the report," a bench comprising Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.

The panel will also suggest measures to provide timely help to road mishap victims in view of growing number of such causalities on highways also.

The committee will also take into consideration various reports filed by state-owned expert departments on road safety.
The apex court had earlier said the panel will consider the two petitions, one filed by an NGO Save Life Foundation and another by an individual S Rajaseekaran.
However, the bench in its order today decided to detach the two petitions.