Soon, several lakhs of cases pending with the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal across Maharashtra will be disposed of speedily.
Soon, several lakhs of cases pending with the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal [Mact] across Maharashtra will be disposed of speedily. The state government has agreed to bring in the changes implemented by the Delhi police following a Delhi high court order.
Taking a suo motu cognizance of the Delhi HC order, the Bombay high court last month had told the state government to consider implementing a provision of the Motor Vehicles Act, which mandates that a copy of the report of an accident has to be sent to the tribunal immediately after it has taken place.
Prem Kishan Jain, principal secretary (special) from the home department, filed an affidavit on Tuesday, stating that the government had considered all the aspects and would be implementing some of the suggestions. “Within six months, the pilot project will be implemented in one district and one commissionerate,” the affidavit stated.
Section 158(6) of the Motor Vehicles Act provides that within 30 days of filing the report/FIR of an accident, a copy of it has to be sent to the tribunal. The, however, has not been implemented strictly.
The government has agreed that the police would send a copy of the FIR to the Mact, but not on the same day, as was suggested by the Delhi HC. The government has also proposed to ask the hospitals under it to post a copy of the post mortem report and other relevant documents to the Mact, and the investigating officers concerned.
The state’s affidavit also proposes that offending vehicles would be released only after drivers/owners produce all the relevant documents — driving licence, registration cover, insurance, permit and fitness. However, the government has not accepted the suggestion of producing drivers/owners of offending vehicle, as well as witnesses, before the Mact due to “paucity of manpower and practical difficulties.”
Advocate general Ravi Kadam and government pleader Nitin Deshpande told the court that as Maharashtra was a much bigger state than Delhi, it would be difficult to implement each and every suggestion simultaneously. “We will start pilot projects in major cities like Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur,” said Kadam.
The court will hear the matter again after four weeks.
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