Motor Vehicles Act

Beyond The Siren: Rethinking The Role of Modern Ambulances

Summary: This article examines whether advanced ambulances, such as ALS vehicles and Mobile ICUs, could be classified as mobile clinics or Mobile Medical Units, attracting registration requirements as ‘clinical establishments’ under the Clinical Establishments Act, 2010. A review of the applicable regulatory framework indicates that ambulances and MMU/ mobile clinics serve fundamentally distinct purposes and are regulated differently, with ambulances presently not requiring clinical establishment registration solely by virtue of carrying medical equipment. However, as pre-hospital care continues to evolve, there is a growing need for a clearer regulatory framework to address the increasingly blurred boundaries between emergency transport vehicles and mobile healthcare delivery.

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IRDAI Regulatory Reform Series: Rural, Social Sector, and Motor Third-Party Obligations

The Insurance Act, 1938 (“Insurance Act”), includes special provisions obligating insurers to mandatorily source a part of their business from persons residing in rural areas; workers in the unorganised or informal sector, or from economically vulnerable or backward classes of the society.[1] Insurers are also required to underwrite a minimum percentage of insurance business for third-party motor insurance policies, both under the Insurance Act[2] as well as the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (“MV Act”).[3] These requirements were, until recently, implemented through two distinct regulations issued by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (“IRDAI”) – the IRDAI (Obligation of Insurer to Rural and Social sector) Regulations, 2015 (“RSO Regulations”), and the IRDAI (Obligation of Insurer in Respect of Motor Third Party Insurance Business) Regulations, 2015 (“MTP Regulations”).

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