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August 7, 2026
Supreme Court has delivered a verdict that could further tighten the norms on vehicles running without valid insurance cover, as it directed the Centre to draft a pilot project under which no fuel will be dispensed by petrol pumps to vehicles without third-party insurance.
On Tuesday, the top court took a serious note of road accidents in the country as it directed the Centre to implement test projects on select national highway corridors to replace conventional toll plazas with an automatic vehicle detection system, while also proposing measures to improve compliance with mandatory motor vehicle insurance.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Prashant Kumar Mishra expressed concern over the high number of road accidents and congestion caused by long queues at toll plazas. The court said pilot projects should be introduced to allow vehicles to pass through toll points without stopping, using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology.
Gross violations of mandatory vehicle insurance policy
The bench also took serious note of the low compliance with mandatory third-party insurance under the Motor Vehicles Act, observing that nearly 56 per cent of vehicles on Indian roads remain uninsured, according to the Standing Committee on Finance’s 2024–25 report.
To improve compliance, the court asked the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), in consultation with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), to develop a pilot project linking the sale of fuel to a vehicle’s insurance status. Under the proposal, vehicles without valid insurance would be denied fuel at petrol pumps until insurance is renewed.
All about the no insurance, no fuel project
The court said such a system would help identify uninsured and unregistered vehicles while encouraging owners to maintain valid insurance. It noted that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had, in principle, no objection to the proposal. The bench added that ANPR cameras could be used to implement the mechanism.
Recalling its 2018 direction mandating three years of third-party insurance for new cars and five years for new two-wheelers at the time of purchase or registration, the court observed that a significant number of vehicles continue to remain uninsured despite the passage of eight years.
