THIRD PARTY CLAIMS IN INDIA

MOTOR THIRD PARTY CLAIMS IN INDIA

What is Motor Third Party Claim

The compensations against fatalities and grievous injuries resultant out of the road accidents do fall within the provisions of Motor Vehicle Act 1938 and Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 in India and the owner / Liability insurers of the vehicles have to comply with the provisions of the law.

The victim can seek compensation through legal process under various provisions of M.V.Act and workmen can seek compensation through provisions of workmen compensation act.

Legal System

The legal system in India was very time consuming and thereby the courts too had been overburdened by such liability claims. The number of death cases and injuries in road accidents are comparatively very high than developed countries due to poor road conditions, poor traffic controls/regulations and lot of reasons specific to India. The average time of settlement of such claims was more than 8 to 10 years.

Intervention by parliament of India

The parliament of India in order to make the settlement of such claims and thereby compensating the victims and their families speedily had by an act of parliament introduced many new modes of settlement. Some highlighted features being

• Formation of  M.A.C.T ( Motor Accidental Claims Tribunals ) courts for speedy settlement.
• Guidelines for amount of compensation by provision of  Table of compensation under Section 163A of M.V.Act. Under said provision the victim does not have to prove neglect or default of the owner or driver.
• Settlement through Lok Adalats wherein the settlements are mostly on structured formula under sec 163 A of M.V.Act.
• Suggested ways for speedy settlement by Jald Rhat Yojna.

RECENT STUDIES

Recent studies carried out by Govt of India based on the data collected from Insurance companies did conclude that the average time of settlement of claims is still very high even after the intervention of Parliament of India. As per report of Insurance Information bureau (based on data of 2004 to 2009) 85% claims are settled in 5 years and 90% in 6 years time periods for Death cases.

This clearly shows that the situation is very critical and the compensation process is very slow and tedious . The Govt of India is forcing the insurers and IRDA to find means for speedy settlements of such liability claims. Also the courts are time and again directing the insurers to find means and ways for speedy settlement of such claims and thereby not overburden the courts which are already overburdened by other cases also.

SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS

When an earning member of the family receives a grievous injury or dies in a road accident, the skies seem to fall. The aggrieved family passes through really tough times due to lack of money to fetch daily needs. It is true that the money cannot replete the void created out of the death or the grievous hurt, but the money plays a vital role each day concurrently and a claimant has to wait for a considerable period/duration to get the righteous compensation due to the processes involved and by then, the real monetary need may have vanished, crushed or vanquished.

More Details can be seen on our web site www.itatkal.com at URL http://itatkal.com/motor_tp