Overview

• All States and Union Territories must within six months notify rules to regulate pedestrians and non‑mechanically propelled vehicles and to prescribe design, construction and maintenance standards for roads other than national highways.
• The bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan reiterated that access to footpaths is part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21, directing measures to ensure accessible, usable pavements.
• Authorities were told to strictly enforce helmet laws and curb wrong‑lane driving and unsafe overtaking, using e‑enforcement such as cameras and publishing enforcement data for court review.
• MoRTH, state transport departments and traffic police must set maximum headlight luminance and beam angles and enforce a complete ban on unauthorised red‑blue strobe lights and illegal hooters through checks, seizures and penalties.
• NHAI and road‑owning agencies must survey at least 20% of roads in 50 major cities within a year to add pedestrian crossings, with the Delhi High Court–National Zoological Garden crossing to be completed within seven months, as the court cited 2023 data on 172,890 road deaths and warned of personal liability for design failures under Section 198A while listing the case for compliance in seven months.