‘Too much’ to bear, Supreme Court takes suo motu case on Phalodi, Telangana highway mishaps

The Supreme Court on Monday (November 10, 2025) said two back-to-back highway accidents, one in Telangana and the other at Phalodi in Rajasthan, claiming nearly 40 lives, many of them children, is “too much” to bear.

The Court directed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the Centre to explain why Indian roads continue to be such killers of innocents.

Also Read:India’s killer roads: how can we make them safe?

“This is just too much. In two days, there have been two horrible accidents. Nearly 40 people have gone,” Justice J.K. Maheshwari, accompanied by Justice Vijay Bishnoi on the Bench, remarked.

The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the tragic highway accident in Rajasthan’s Phalodi, which killed 15 people, when a tempo traveller rammed into a truck parked in front of an eatery at the Bharatmala highway on November 2, 2025. The tempo was carrying women and children from Jodhpur, who had gone on a pilgrimage to Bikaner.

The very next day, 19 people, including a three-month-old girl, were killed when a lorry collided head-on with a bus while swerving to avoid a pothole on the NH 163 (Hyderabad-Bijapur) highway on November 3.

Justice Maheshwari said media reports were explicit about the reasons behind both accidents. It has been reported that the highways were in a bad state of disrepair despite payments of regular tolls.

The Court highlighted that eateries have been opened up illegally along the highways in spots not earmarked as facility areas.

“As a consequence, vehicles plying on the roads are unable to spot stationary trucks or other vehicles stopped by the side of the highway,” Justice Maheshwari remarked.

Issuing notice, the Court directed the NHAI, the Road Ministry to submit a report on the condition of the two highways where the accidents took place in two weeks.

Impleading the Home Ministry, the Court directed the government Ministries and the NHAI to provide details of the number of illegal dhabas or eateries occupying unnotified areas along the banks of the two highways, the condition of the roads, and the norms followed by contractors for maintaining the two thoroughfares.

The Court also directed the notice to be issued to the Chief Secretaries of all the States through which the two highways passed.

Senior advocate A.N.S. Nadkarni, who was appointed amicus curiae, said the Court must extend the ambit of the suo motu case to a pan-India basis. “Let us see what happened here in this case first,” Justice Maheshwari responded.