The Supreme Court has directed the Central Government to develop an online all-India platform for insurers, police and tribunals so that motor accident claims cases can be dealt with swiftly.
The Court also passed directions that will apply across the country so that a uniform practice is followed while hearing the writ petition filed by Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Private Ltd.
The court appreciated the positive attitude of all the stakeholders to streamline the process while inter se discussion between the stakeholders.
The directions given by the court are as follows:
A. Accident Information Report: The jurisdictional police station shall report the accident under section 158(6) of the Act (section 159 post 2019 amendment) (hereinafter “the report”) to the tribunal and insurer within the first 48 hours either over email or a dedicated website.
B. Detailed Accident Report: Police shall collect the documents relevant to the accident and for computation of compensation and shall verify the information and documents. These documents shall form part of the report. It shall email the Report to the tribunal and the insurer within three months. Similarly, the claimants may also be permitted to email the application for compensation with supporting documents, under Section 166 to the tribunal and the insurer within the same time.
C. The tribunal shall issue summons along with the report or the application for compensation, as the case may be, to the insurer by email.
D. The insurer shall email their offer for settlement/response to the Report or the application for claim to the tribunal along with proof of service on the claimants.
E. After passing the award, the tribunal shall email an authenticated copy of the award to the insurer.
F. The insurer shall satisfy the award by depositing the awarded amount into a bank account maintained by the tribunal by RTGS or NEFT. For this purpose, the tribunal shall maintain a bank account and record the relevant account details along with the directions for payment to the insurer in the award itself.
G. Each tribunal shall create an email ID peculiar to its jurisdiction for receiving the emails from the police and the insurer as mentioned above. Similarly, all insurer throughout India shall also create an email ID peculiar to the jurisdiction of each claim tribunal. These email IDs would be prominently displayed at the tribunal, the police stations and the office of the insurers for the benefit of the claimants. Similarly, these email IDS shall also be prominently displayed on the website maintained by the tribunal and the insurer.
H. Insurers shall appoint nodal officers for each tribunal and provide their contact details, phone and mobile phone numbers, and email address to director generals of state police and the tribunals.
There are two other aspects which have been noted as under:
(I) Tamil Nadu and NCT of Delhi have already progressed from having email accounts for submission of accident reportsby the police to the tribunal and the insurer, to operating an online platform/website for submission of accident report under Section 159. These online platform/websites shall be suitably be modified for submission of claimants’ application for compensation under Section 166 of the Act as well insurers’ response to the accident report or the claim petition as the case may be.
(J) Each State having an independent online platform for submission of accident reports, claims and responses to claims, will hamper efficient adjudication of claims, especially where the victim of the accident is not a resident of State where accident has occurred.
The court said, “Therefore, the central government shall develop an online platform accessible to the tribunals, police authorities and insurers throughout India. In respect of the aforesaid matters, learned ASG states that some more time may be required to work out the time period within which they can be implemented and the necessary infrastructure for the same created for which some more discussions are required.”
The bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R. Subhash Reddy is of the view that both (I) and (J) also liable to be implemented across the country but Court will specify the time period within which (I) and (J) has to be implemented.
The court has listed this matter on May 4 for further directions.