Good Samaritan Law in India: Your Rights If You Help

Most people who drive past a road accident are not cruel. They are afraid of exactly three things: being dragged into a police case, being made to pay the hospital bill, and losing days in court. Indian law has answered all three in writing, and the answers are stronger than almost anyone realises. The problem is that the rules that contain them are almost never quoted.

These come from rule 168, inserted into the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 as a new Chapter IX.

• You are not liable for the outcome. Section 134A(1): a Good Samaritan shall not be liable for any civil or criminal action for any injury to or death of the victim, where that resulted from the Good Samaritan's negligence in acting or failing to act while rendering emergency medical or non-medical care or assistance.
• You must be treated with respect. Rule 168(1): you shall be treated respectfully without any discrimination on the grounds of religion, nationality, caste or sex.
• You may walk away at once. Rule 168(2): a Good Samaritan who has informed the police, or transported the victim to hospital, shall not be subjected to any further requirements by the police or the hospital, and shall be permitted to leave immediately.
• Nobody can force your name out of you. Rule 168(3): no police officer or any other person shall compel a Good Samaritan to disclose his name, identity, address or any such other personal details.
• Volunteering your name does not make you a witness. The second proviso to rule 168(3): if you have voluntarily given your details, the police officer shall not compel you to become an eye-witness, and the choice of becoming an eye-witness shall solely rest with the Good Samaritan.
• The hospital cannot make you pay or do paperwork. Rule 168(4): a Good Samaritan who transports a victim shall not be forced to disclose personal information including for the Medico-Legal Case Form, to fulfil any admission procedure, or to bear any medical expenses towards the treatment.
• Every hospital must publish this on the wall. Rule 168(5): every public and private hospital shall publish a charter in Hindi, English and the vernacular language, at the entrance or other conspicuous location and on their website, stating the rights of Good Samaritans.

That last one is the most useful line in the whole scheme, because it is the one you can check before you ever need it. If your neighbourhood hospital has no such charter at its entrance or on its site, it is not complying with rule 168(5).

The Explanation to section 134A defines it, and the definition is deliberately wide: a person who in good faith, voluntarily and without expectation of any reward or compensation renders emergency medical or non-medical care or assistance at the scene of an accident to the victim, or transports such victim to the hospital.

Three things follow. Non-medical help counts, so you do not need any training. Simply moving the person to a hospital counts on its own. And the protection is not limited to people who witnessed the crash.

Rule 168(4) has a proviso most people never use. If you have volunteered your name and you want it, the hospital shall provide an acknowledgement on official letter-pad, mentioning your name and address, the time, date and place of occurrence, and confirming that the injured person was brought by you.

Ask for it. It is a one page document that closes the loop, and it is the cleanest proof that you helped rather than caused.

Rule 169 governs what happens next, and it is written to remove the usual burden.

1. Only if you agreed. Rule 169(1) applies only where a person has voluntarily agreed to become a witness.
2. At your convenience, in plain clothes. Rule 169(2): the examination shall be conducted at a time and place of your convenience, such as your residence or place of business, and the investigating officer shall be dressed in plain clothes. If you prefer the police station, it must be done in a time bound manner without undue delay and, as far as possible, completed in a single examination.
3. In your language. Rule 169(3): if you speak a language other than that of the investigating officer or the local language, the officer shall arrange an interpreter.
4. By affidavit. Rule 169(4): an eye-witness Good Samaritan shall be permitted to give evidence on affidavit, and that affidavit shall be treated as a complete statement. If a statement has to be recorded instead, it shall be recorded in a single examination.
5. Or by commission. Rule 169(5): where your attendance cannot be procured without unreasonable delay, expense or inconvenience, the Court or Magistrate may dispense with attendance and issue a commission for your examination.
6. By video. Rule 169(6): video conferencing shall be used extensively during examination of Good Samaritans who choose to be eye-witnesses, in order to prevent harassment and inconvenience.

One honest caveat. Rule 169(4) and 169(5) cite sections 296 and 284 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. That Code has since been replaced by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which is the code now referred to in current central legislation. The rules have not been re-worded, so expect the corresponding successor provision to be applied in practice. The protection itself is unaffected; only the section numbering is dated.

The Act does not leave everything to volunteers.

Section 134(a) puts a duty on the driver involved to take all reasonable steps to secure medical attention by conveying the injured person to the nearest medical practitioner or hospital, and then adds a duty on the other side: it shall be the duty of every registered medical practitioner or the doctor on duty in the hospital immediately to attend to the injured person and render medical aid or treatment without waiting for any procedural formalities, unless the injured person or the guardian of a minor desires otherwise.

Section 162 handles the money. Section 162(1) requires general insurance companies to provide for treatment of road accident victims, including during the golden hour. Section 162(2) requires the Central Government to make a scheme for cashless treatment of victims during the golden hour, and permits a fund to be created for it.

Section 2(12A) defines the term precisely: golden hour means the time period lasting one hour following a traumatic injury during which there is highest likelihood of preventing death by providing prompt medical care.

So the statutory design is clear. You bring the person in, the doctor must treat before paperwork, and the payment question is not yours.

Rule 168(5) is an obligation you can audit. If a government hospital has no Good Samaritan charter at its entrance or on its website, a Right to Information application to its Public Information Officer will establish that in writing.

1. Whether the charter required by rule 168(5) of the Central Motor
   Vehicles Rules, 1989, stating the rights of Good Samaritans, has
   been published at the entrance of your hospital and on its website;
   if yes, a copy of that charter and the date it was put up.
2. A copy of any circular or standing instruction issued by your
   office to staff regarding rules 168 and 169 of the said Rules.
3. The number of cases in the last one year in which a person
   bringing a road accident victim was asked to deposit money or to
   complete admission formalities, as recorded in your registers.
4. A copy of the scheme framed under section 162(2) of the Motor
   Vehicles Act, 1988 for cashless treatment during the golden hour,
   as adopted or implemented by your hospital.

Address it to the Public Information Officer of the hospital or the district health office, and keep the thirty day clock under section 7 of the RTI Act running. The AI RTI Drafter will put it in shape, the RTI Timeline Calculator tracks the deadline, and the First Appeal Builder handles a non-reply. The RTI Playbook sets out the escalation route in full.

A charter that goes up because one citizen asked for it protects every person who walks past that gate afterwards.

No. Rule 168(3) says no police officer or any other person shall compel a Good Samaritan to disclose his name, identity, address or any other personal detail. You may choose to give your details, but that choice is yours, and the proviso adds that giving them still does not let the officer force you to become an eye-witness.

No. Rule 168(4)© says a Good Samaritan who transports a victim shall not be forced to bear any medical expenses towards the treatment. Rule 168(4)(b) separately removes any obligation to complete admission formalities, and section 134(a) requires the doctor on duty to treat immediately without waiting for procedural formalities.

Section 134A(1) covers exactly that. A Good Samaritan is not liable for any civil or criminal action for injury to or death of the victim where it resulted from the Good Samaritan's negligence in acting or failing to act while giving emergency medical or non-medical care. The protection is for good faith help, which is why the definition requires that you act voluntarily and without expecting reward.

No. The Explanation to section 134A covers emergency medical or non-medical care or assistance, and it separately covers simply transporting the victim to hospital. Calling the police and moving the person to care is enough to bring you within the definition.

Only if you chose to be a witness, and even then rule 169 is designed to prevent it. The examination happens at your convenience, an affidavit under rule 169(4) is treated as a complete statement, a commission can be issued under rule 169(5) where attendance would be unreasonable, and rule 169(6) says video conferencing shall be used extensively to prevent harassment.

Section 2(12A) defines it as the one hour following a traumatic injury during which there is the highest likelihood of preventing death by prompt medical care. It matters because section 162 hangs the treatment and cashless payment obligations on that window, which is why getting someone to a hospital quickly is the single most valuable thing a bystander does.

• The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, sections 2(12A), 134, 134A and 162. Full text on India Code at indiacode.gov.in
• The Central Motor Vehicles Twelfth Amendment Rules, 2020, notified by G.S.R. 594 dated 29 September 2020, Gazette of India Extraordinary Part II Section 3 Sub-section i, No. 485 dated 29 September 2020, File No. RT-16011/1/2015-RS, inserting Chapter IX and rules 168 and 169 in the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989
• The Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, principal rules notified by G.S.R. 590 dated 2 June 1989
• The Right to Information Act, 2005, sections 6 and 7, full text at RTI Act 2005 on RTI Wiki

• Hit and run victims can claim from a government fund
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• IRDAI cashless rule: 1 hour to approve, 3 hours to discharge
• Ayushman card cashless denied? How to complain

Reviewed by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak. This page is general legal information, not legal advice. Statutory and rule text quoted from the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and from G.S.R. 594 dated 29 September 2020 as published on India Code. Some States also have their own Good Samaritan legislation, which was not verified here, so check your State position as well.