HC brings reforms in accident claims jurisdiction

The whole reform process had come into being after Justice PN Prakash came across a plea moved by an insurer who was confronted with 3 separate and independent motor accident claims for the death of one person viz., Mohan, two in Chennai and one in Tiruvallur, totalling more than a crore. It was further noticed that the FIR may have been tampered with, to falsely implicate an insured lorry.

But the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB), which had developed the DAR regime, which involved uploading not just the FIR but also all related documents viz motor accident claims on their Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) revealed that the details of an earlier accident involving the same lorry were deviously deployed by mischief makers, which included a tout masquerading as an advocate clerk.

Thereafter, a search by the insurer for similar double or triple claims for the same victim came up with 353 MCOPs of such genre, associated with just 5 private insurers out of 19 licensed motor insurers in TN. The matter was referred to the CB-CID and as devastating facts tumbled out on the nefarious practices in accident claims, tarnishing the purity of administration of justice, Justice K Chandru (Retd) was appointed as an expert body on July 19, 2018 to go into the details.

Justice Prakash said, “It boggles the mind that so much money rides in the name of just compensation to accident victims and so much injustice is being perpetrated by the practitioners, in tandem with touts and brokers, with not so little complicity from police and hospital administrations and even ambulance services and drivers.” Based on this, he directed the Registrar General to issue a Circular, preferably within 2 weeks, to all the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunals in TN and Puducherry, to implement the MACAD Scheme as mandated by the SC.

“The implementation of the MACAD Scheme shall be on and from October 1, 2019, to put the logistics in place. There shall be no exception made to MACAD Scheme compliance, even in claims which are settled by way of compromise by Alternate Dispute Resolution mode, be it in Lok Adalat or Mediation dispensations, except as may be provided for in the Scheme itself, for reasons to be recorded in writing by the Claims Tribunals,” JusticePrakash added.