India Marine Incident Rules 2026: Who Directs the Response After a Casualty, and Who Pays

The India marine incident rules, formally the Merchant Shipping (Marine Incident and Emergency Response) Rules, 2026, were notified on 12 May 2026 as G.S.R. 354(E) and came into force on publication. They give a nodal authority power to direct masters, owners, managers, operators, salvors, insurers and ports after a marine casualty, to take over the response when the responsible party is slow or unable, and to recover its costs from the ship owner. They are short, six rules in all, but they sit behind the insurer and salvage provisions of the entry rules and the Wreck and Salvage Rules, so they set out who is in charge when something goes wrong in Indian waters.

This article summarises the India marine incident rules from the Gazette text. The nodal authority is the authority appointed by the Central Government under section 225 of the Merchant Shipping Act 2025.

What Counts as a Marine Casualty

Rule 2 defines a marine casualty as an event or sequence of events directly connected with the operations of a ship that results in the death of or serious injury to a person; the loss of a person from a ship; the loss, presumed loss or abandonment of a ship; material damage to a ship; the stranding or disabling of a ship or its involvement in a collision; material damage to marine infrastructure external to a ship that could seriously endanger the safety of a ship or an individual; or severe damage to the environment, or the potential for it. The rules also name the Directorate General of Shipping Communication Centre as the single point for casualty and emergency reporting, and the Indian Coast Guard’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres and Sub-Centres as the bodies that coordinate search and rescue.

What the India Marine Incident Rules Let the Nodal Authority Do

Under rule 3 the nodal authority coordinates and supervises the response to marine incidents, using directives, mobilised resources and inter-agency cooperation. It may issue safety directions to any person, master, crew, ship owner, ship manager, ship operator, port authority, flag State authority, salvor, insurer or other entity involved or affected, for purposes that include securing the safety of ships, persons and property, requiring removal or containment of marine hazards including hazardous and noxious substances spilled at sea or washed ashore, mandating salvage, firefighting, pollution control and decontamination, requiring periodic reporting and documentation, and coordinating with the Indian Navy, the Coast Guard and other States’ authorities.

If a directive is unlikely to achieve, or has not achieved, a sufficient result, rule 3(4) lets the nodal authority take or authorise further action, including entering land or premises, assuming control of any ship or property relevant to the incident, arranging emergency response services such as pollution prevention, hazard removal and salvage, and supervising all response and remediation activity. It oversees compliance, and a Principal Officer may enforce the penalties in section 281(2) of the Act for contravention of a direction. The Director-General coordinates the entities involved and helps communicate with ship owners, flag, port and coastal State authorities to mobilise the primary response party’s resources.

When the Authority Takes the Lead, and Who Pays

Rule 4 requires the nodal authority to start and carry out immediate response action where there are reasonable grounds, including any delay or inability of the primary response party to mobilise resources in time, and allows it to hand control back once the primary response party has arrived and is operationally ready. Rule 5 makes the ship owner liable for the costs. A person or entity complying with a directive under rule 3(4) may recover the costs reasonably incurred from the ship owner, the owner of coastal land or premises used or affected may do the same, and the costs of the Central Government, a State Government or the nodal authority in carrying out a response under rule 4 are recoverable from the ship owner at the rates the government specifies.

Ports and Offshore Facilities

Rule 6 of the India marine incident rules requires every port and offshore facility to keep incident logs, inspection records and training documentation, in paper or electronic form, for at least five years, and allows the nodal authority to audit them annually or by surprise inspection to verify preparedness.

For the insurer duties and the salvage contract requirement that apply to foreign ships in Indian coastal waters, see India Coastal Waters Entry Rules 2026. The full set of 2026 rules is mapped in India’s Merchant Shipping Rules 2026: A Map for Ship Managers.

Sources

The summary above is taken from the English text of the Gazette notification, read in full.

• Merchant Shipping (Marine Incident and Emergency Response) Rules, 2026, G.S.R. 354(E), 12 May 2026 (English text follows the Hindi)
• Merchant Shipping Act, 2025 (24 of 2025)

More from the Amendment Log