In a landmark judgment on Thursday (28th May), the Supreme Court of India has ruled that all States and Union Territories (UTs) will adopt the single unified emergency response number 112 within 3 months.
While 112 is already functional in many States and UTs, some States are still using different emergency helplines for the police, fire departments, ambulances, etc. The apex court’s ruling came while hearing a petition filed by the SaveLife Foundation.
112 was modelled like the United States’ 911 system by the Union Home Ministry. It replaced the old system of having separate numbers for different emergency services. The Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) connects users to police control rooms, ambulance services and so on.
On Thursday (28th May), a 2 Judge Bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Atul S Chandurkar observed, “The right to trauma care of citizens is an integral part of right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. In such a situation, every minute spent without medical intervention or urgent care significantly narrows the scope for survival. Swiftness, is quite literally, like medicine.”
As such, the apex court called for a systemic intervention to ensure a uniform trauma care framework, standardised first-aid training, Good Samaritan protection and public awareness campaigns.
In accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling, all emergency helpline numbers, such as 100, 101, and 108 will be integrated into 112. There will no longer be any need to remember numbers separately. This will also weed out any confusion from the minds of citizens during emergencies.
The apex court had directed to complete operational and technical requirements within 3 months and implement the PM Rahat scheme for cashless treatment for road accident victims.
The Supreme Court has directed states and UTs to complete the technical and operational integration within three months.
