HC directs state to speed up processing of accident claims

The Bombay High Court today directed the Maharashtra government to speed up the processing of claims for motor vehicle accidents by implementing some of the observations made by Delhi High Court in a recent ruling.

The court has also directed top officials of the state to prepare a report detailing the steps the government would take to speed up the processing of claims.

The Delhi court had observed implementation of section 158(6) of Motor Vehicles Act could speed up the whole process.

The section provides for procedures that need to be initiated so that victims or their relatives are spared the delays in getting compensation from insurance companies.

Among other things, the section provides that police must register an FIR immediately after the accident case has been reported.

The police are supposed to prepare and forward a report to the Maharashtra Accidents Claim Tribunal on their own. But in practice, claimants have to do rounds of the police station to get the FIR copy and then file the claim before the tribunal.

"The whole concept of filing claims is gone (by virtue of section 158)," said division bench of chief justice Swatanter Kumar and justice AM Khanwilkar.

Judges directed advocate general Ravi Kadam to hold a meeting with the DGP, police commissioner, home secretary, transport commissioner and principal secretary (law and order) and prepare a report in two weeks, detailing how the provision will be enforced.