Integrate all emergency helplines into '112' in three months, says SC

Noting that the right to trauma care of a citizen is an integral part of right to life, the Supreme Court has directed states and UTs to integrate within three months all emergency/ambulance helplines into one helpline number '112' for emergency responses.

A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and A S Chandurkar also directed them to establish a functional grievance redressal system under Good Samaritan laws. The top court said that what is required is a systemic intervention, the creation of a uniform framework for trauma care, building public awareness, the standardisation of first aid skills and proper Good Samaritan laws, as the "right to trauma care of citizens is an integral part of the right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution".



"States/UTs shall complete full technical and operational integration of all emergency/ambulance helplines (100, 101, 108, 102, 1033, 1091, etc.) into helpline 112 within a period of three months and undertake concurrent mass-media publicity of helpline 112, and report compliance," the bench said.

"The Union of India (health ministry/road transport and highways ministry) is permitted to issue a medical rescue protocol for trauma cases in a period of three months, and all states/UTs are directed to operationalise the same at state/UT level upon its issue within three months thereof," the bench said.