Is Your Home or Shop Near a National Highway? The Supreme Court Order That Could Change the Rules
A tragic highway accident has triggered a Supreme Court intervention that could affect thousands of homes, shops, restaurants and commercial properties along National Highways across India.
The biggest numbers to remember are 40 metres, 75 metres and the highway Right of Way (ROW).
But there is also considerable confusion.
Does a shop within 75 metres have to be demolished?
What happens to an existing house within 40 metres?
Can a house be converted into a shop?
Can an existing business renew its licence?
The answers are more nuanced than some alarming social-media messages suggest.
It Started With 34 Deaths
What triggered the case
On 2–3 November 2025, two serious highway accidents occurred in:
- Phalodi, Rajasthan — a tempo traveller carrying pilgrims crashed into a stationary heavy vehicle, killing 15 people.
- Rangareddy, Telangana — another highway collision killed 19 people.
The Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance on 10 November 2025, viewing the deaths as potentially arising from systemic failures including unsafe roadside parking, encroachments and inadequate highway infrastructure
That began a process which eventually resulted in a sweeping set of nationwide highway-safety directions.
The timeline
2–3 November 2025
34 people die in successive highway accidents in Rajasthan and Telangana.
10 November 2025
The Supreme Court takes suo motu cognisance and seeks answers from State and national authorities.
15 February 2026
The Court-appointed Amicus Curiae places recommendations before the Court.
16 February 2026
The Solicitor General and Amicus Curiae are asked to identify measures requiring further deliberation and those needing immediate implementation.
16 March 2026
NHAI submits its comments.
8 April 2026
NHAI files an additional affidavit concerning the proposed interim measures.
13 April 2026
The Supreme Court issues the major interim order in In Re: Phalodi Accident v. National Highways Authority of India & Ors., 2026 INSC 388.
And this is where the issue becomes important for property owners.
The Three Zones Every Highway Property Owner Should Understand
Forget rumours for a moment.
For a house or shop near a National Highway, three questions matter.
1. Is your property inside the National Highway Right of Way?
This is the most serious category.
The Right of Way, or ROW, is essentially the highway land corridor under the control of the highway authority. Its width is not necessarily the same on every highway or at every location.
The Supreme Court ordered that no new dhaba, eatery or commercial structure may be constructed or operated within the ROW of a National Highway.
More importantly, District Magistrates were directed to enforce removal of new or existing unauthorised structures within the ROW, following the procedure under the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002.
This is the part of the order that can lead to actual removal or demolition proceedings.
But notice the crucial word:
Unauthorised.
The judgment is not a blanket command to demolish every private building simply because it is located near a highway.
The 40-Metre Rule
The Supreme Court directed State Governments to issue notifications prohibiting change of land use within 40 metres for residential purposes, measured from the mid-point of a National Highway, consistent with IRC norms.
This has sometimes been simplified into:
"All houses within 40 metres of a National Highway are illegal."
That is not what the order says.
The operative phrase is change of land use.
An existing lawfully constructed house does not automatically become an illegal structure merely because it falls within the 40-metre distance.
The much more important question will be what approvals existed when the property was developed, whether the structure encroaches into the highway ROW, and what the applicable State notification says.
The 75-Metre Rule — More Significant for Businesses
Commercial properties face a larger distance.
The Court directed States to prohibit change of land use within 75 metres for commercial purposes from the mid-point of a National Highway.
That potentially matters to:
shops,
restaurants,
hotels,
workshops,
showrooms,
petrol-related commercial facilities,
offices,
warehouses and
residential properties proposed to be converted for commercial use.
Again, however:
75 metres is not a universal demolition line.
A shop standing 60 metres from the highway centre does not automatically receive a demolition order simply because it is inside 75 metres.
The Supreme Court's direction at this distance concerns land-use controls.
Demolition/removal is dealt with separately in relation to unauthorised structures within the highway ROW.
That distinction is extremely important.
Existing Shops Have Another Problem: Licence Renewal
This may become one of the most immediate practical effects of the judgment.
The Supreme Court directed that:
No department, local authority or other authority should grant or renew a licence, NOC or trade approval for a site within a highway safety zone without prior NHAI/PWD clearance.
It also ordered a review of existing licences for such sites.
That means a business could potentially own its building and still encounter problems when seeking:
trade licence renewal,
a fresh business licence,
an NOC,
change of occupancy,
conversion from residential to commercial use, or
another local-body approval.
For many businesses, therefore, licensing may become a bigger immediate concern than demolition.
What About a House That Has Been There for 20 or 30 Years?
Consider this example.
You own a house located 30 metres from the centre of a National Highway.
The property has valid title documents. The house was legally constructed years ago and does not encroach into NHAI's ROW.
Does the April 2026 Supreme Court order automatically require your house to be demolished?
No such blanket demolition direction appears in the order.
But suppose you now decide to convert that same house into:
a restaurant, supermarket or commercial showroom.
That is a different situation.
The proposed change of land use could encounter the new highway-control regime, because the commercial restriction directed by the Court extends up to 75 metres from the highway midpoint.
What If My Shop Is Only 20 Metres From the Road?
Distance alone still doesn't answer the question.
Imagine two shops standing exactly 20 metres from a highway centre line.
Shop A
The land is outside the legally notified highway ROW and the building has valid approvals.
Shop B
Part of the structure has been built on highway land inside the ROW without authorisation.
They may physically appear almost identical.
Legally, their positions can be completely different.
That is why property owners should not rely solely on measuring the distance from the visible edge of the tarred road.
You need to establish the actual highway boundary.
ROW Is More Important Than the Edge of the Road
A common mistake is to look at the asphalt and assume:
"My compound wall is 10 metres away, so I am safe."
The National Highway corridor can extend considerably beyond the visible carriageway.
The Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002 specifically provides for control of land within National Highway ROW, highway traffic and removal of unauthorised occupation. (India Code)
Therefore, the meaningful measurement is not simply:
building → edge of tar
Property owners need to determine:
highway centre line → property position
and, separately,
official ROW boundary → property boundary/building
Those are two different measurements with different legal consequences.
Direct Highway Access May Also Become Important
There is another issue many shop owners overlook.
Even if the building itself is legal, direct access from a private property onto a National Highway is regulated.
Sections 28 and 29 of the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act deal with rights of access and permission for access to National Highways. (India Code)
This becomes particularly relevant for businesses that depend on vehicles turning directly from the National Highway into:
shops,
restaurants,
workshops,
petrol pumps,
warehouses or
parking areas.
Highway safety enforcement can therefore affect a business without anyone demolishing the building.
The entrance itself may become the issue.
Why Did the Supreme Court Go This Far?
The Court highlighted a striking statistic:
National Highways constitute roughly 2% of India's total road length but account for nearly 30% of road fatalities.
The Court linked commuter safety directly to Article 21 — the Right to Life.
Its reasoning was significant: the State's constitutional responsibility does not stop at avoiding unlawful deprivation of life. It includes a positive obligation to create a road environment in which human life is protected.
The Court therefore used its powers under Article 142 to impose time-bound nationwide measures.
The Court Put Authorities on a Clock
The order was not merely advisory.
It contained unusually specific deadlines.
By around 28 April 2026 — 15 days
District-level highway safety structures were to be put in place under the Court's directions.
By 13 May 2026 — 30 days
Among other requirements:
highway authorities were to report identified encroachments,
existing licences in highway safety zones were to be reviewed, and
dedicated highway surveillance teams were to be constituted.
By 28 May 2026 — 45 days
MoRTH/NHAI were directed to identify and publish a comprehensive list of accident blackspots on National Highways.
By 12 June 2026 — 60 days
This was one of the biggest deadlines.
Among the measures due within this period were:
enforcement against unauthorised ROW structures,
State notifications concerning the 40 m residential / 75 m commercial land-use restrictions,
stronger enforcement against illegal highway parking,
operationalisation of specified traffic-management infrastructure, and
deployment of ambulances and recovery cranes at prescribed intervals.
By around 27 June 2026 — 75 days
MoRTH was directed to place a consolidated district-wise and agency-wise compliance report before the Supreme Court.
So this is not simply a judgment whose consequences might emerge several years later.
The Court deliberately created an accelerated implementation timetable.
What Should a Highway-Side Homeowner Check Now?
If you own property close to a National Highway, four documents or measurements can tell you far more than rumours circulating on WhatsApp.
1. Find the exact National Highway centre line
Do not measure casually from one edge of the road.
2. Find the official ROW boundary
This may require checking NHAI/MoRTH/PWD acquisition plans, highway plans or land records.
3. Check your building approvals
Keep copies of:
title deed,
survey sketch,
building permit,
approved building plan,
occupancy/completion documents and
historic approvals.
4. If it is a business, check your highway-related approvals
Particularly examine:
trade licence,
NOC,
land-use classification,
access permission and
any NHAI/PWD clearance.
The Question Has Changed
Until now, many highway-side property owners primarily asked:
"Do I own this land?"
After the Phalodi Accident case, that may no longer be enough.
The questions increasingly become:
Is it inside the highway ROW?
How far is it from the highway midpoint?
Is the use residential or commercial?
Was there a change of land use?
Does the business have highway clearance?
Is its direct highway access authorised?
Those distinctions can determine whether a property is largely unaffected, faces licensing complications, loses direct highway access, encounters restrictions on future development — or, in the most serious cases involving unauthorised occupation of ROW, faces removal proceedings.
The Bottom Line
The Supreme Court has not drawn a 75-metre demolition line along every National Highway in India.
That is an oversimplification.
Instead, the April 2026 order creates a much more significant regulatory framework:
Inside highway ROW: unauthorised structures are at serious risk of removal.
Within 40 metres: residential change of land use is subject to the restrictions directed by the Court.
Within 75 metres: commercial change of land use is subject to the corresponding restriction.
Within highway safety zones: licences, NOCs and trade approvals face NHAI/PWD scrutiny.
For highway-facing businesses: authorised access to the National Highway can be just as important as ownership of the building itself.
For thousands of families and businesses along India's National Highways, the most important thing now is therefore not panic.
It is measurement, documentation and verification.
Because after In Re: Phalodi Accident, the few metres between your property and a National Highway may matter considerably more than they did before.
This article is a general explanation of the Supreme Court's interim directions in In Re: Phalodi Accident v. National Highways Authority of India & Ors., 2026 INSC 388, and the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002. Individual properties can be affected differently depending on ROW boundaries, acquisition records, State notifications, building permissions and land-use approvals. It should not be treated as property-specific legal advice.
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