Snehal Upadhyay –
Published on: August 12, 2021, at 09:50 IST
The Supreme Court directed the Central Government to inspect the possibilities of withdrawing exemption from insurance for State Corporations that run public transport as they are unable to pay compensation for a long period of time and therefore incurring losses.
“In fact, there are numerous illustrations where the vehicles had to be attached for coercive recovery from the Corporations to make payments to the claimants. Learned ASG would examine the possibility of either withdrawing the exemption or for a mechanism to ensure that sufficient fund pool is available with these Corporations for meeting their liabilities towards the claimants,” the Bench stated.
A Division Bench of Justice SK Kaul and Justice Hrishikesh Roy issued such directions while dealing with a matter related to having a speedy disbursal of compensation to victims by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal.
The Court has given two months of time to the government in order to present the progress made in developing an online platform for the tribunals, police authorities and insurers so that accident reports and claims can easily be handled by these concerned authorities.
These two months of time were granted when Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Jayant Sud highlighted to the Court that practically all the 26 insurance companies have come on board so that a common App is developed.
The Court made a list of suggestions given by Senior Counsel N.L. Raja.
The Counsel suggested having online mediation for settling cases related to motor accident claims by the web portal itself, further it also submitted he would initiate making recommendations to the ASG within two weeks for consideration by the Government.
The Bench observed that“What appears from his submission is that the online mediation groups would be advising the insurance companies and it would be binding on the insurance companies while the claimant has the option to accept it or not to accept it. Since this will be backed by reasons through these online mediation organizations, the chances of the claimants accepting it are quite high.”
The Bench has directed the intervening applicants “who claim to have expertise in MACT matters to give their recommendation to the ASG within 10 days.
The Court has further directed the ASG to inspect whether they have any merit or not and if there is any requirement of restructuring of directions.
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Also Read: Motor Accident Claims Tribunal
