National News

SC on third party insurance

August 11 , 2026 15 hrs 0 min 83 0

The Supreme Court extended the mandatory third-party motor insurance coverage of new vehicles by a year.
New cars will now have four years of coverage and two-wheelers six years.
The court observed that despite the statutory mandate, a “shocking” number of vehicles continued to ply on Indian roads without third-party insurance.
It was forcing accident victims and their families to “run from pillar to post” to secure compensation.
The court proposed a system in which vehicles without valid insurance can be denied fuel at petrol pumps.
It also directed that Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, deployed on highways and roads to detect traffic violations, be integrated with insurance data maintained by the Insurance Information Bureau of India (IIB) and vehicle registration data available on the VAHAN portal.
In its 2018 judgment in the S. Rajaseekaran v. Union of India case, the apex court had required purchasers of new vehicles to obtain three-year third-party insurance for cars and five-year cover for two-wheelers at the time of purchase or registration.