The roads are becoming
more and more congested – there are so many vehicles of different hues and
sadly accidents are on the rise.When there is a road accident – the injured or
the legal heirs (if deceased) file petition before Motor Accidents Claims
Tribunals (MACT) specially constituted, claiming compensation against the vehicle
owner impleading the Insurer also. After
due procedure, the Hon’ble Court passes award against the owner / Insurer and
by virtue of Policy, Insurers effect payment of compensation.
The Motor Vehicles Act and
the setting up of MACT is considered beneficial legislation in nature – a
legislation that has a broader view considering the welfare of people. MACTs are set up for providing correct and speedy
compensation to the victims of road accidents. In 1939, Motor Vehicles Act, a statute
consolidated the laws relating to motor vehicles. This has since been replaced
by MV Act 1988. Chap IX of the Act deals with Insurance of Motor vehicles
against Third party risks. Sec 146 specifies the necessity for insurance
against TP risks but sub sec (2) exempts vehicles owned by Govt as also State
transport undertaking. The requirements of policies and limits of liability are
specified in Sec 147. Sec 149 deals with the Duty of the Insurers to satisfy
judgments and awards against persons insured in respect of TP risks.
Like every other Policy of
Insurance, a Motor Policy [i.e., policy covering a registered Motor vehicle] –
is primarily, a contract between the Insurer and the Insured (proposer) –
Insurer undertaking to indemnity the insured against loss or damage arising out
of any insured peril during the currency of the policy. Motor Policies are annual contracts (they can
be short period also). The policy incepts
from 00:00 hours and expires on midnight of the last day of the policy. The
policy ceases to be in force upon expiration and the policy holder will not be
entitled to any benefits under the insurance policy thereafter.
Now read this interesting
news item from the New Indian Express, Chennai edition of date.
CHENNAI: Holding that expiry of the validity of an insurance policy of
a vehicle cannot be a ground to deny compensation to an accident victim, the
Motor Vehicles Accident Claims Tribunal in Chennai has awarded a compensation
of Rs 39 lakh to the legal heirs of a 27
year-old techie, who died in an accident in 2012.
Accepting
the arguments of advocate AS Bilal, the tribunal, which is also the 2nd
Court of Small Causes, presided over by S Priya, awarded the compensation,
while passing orders on a claim from the father, mother and sister of the
deceased V Vasanthakumar, last week.
The Reliance
General Insurance Company should pay Rs 38.79 lakh with nine per cent interest
from April 2013, the date of filing of the claim, to the claimants within 30
days and it is entitled to recover the same from S Ramesh of Kandigai, the
owner of the vehicle, which was involved in the accident, the Judge said.
According to
Bilal, the deceased was a mechanical engineer working in a private soft-ware
firm in SIPCOT at Oragadam.He was a bachelor drawing a salary of about Rs
30,000 at the time of the accident. While he was returning in the office car, a
milk van owned by Ramesh rammed against the car killing him on the spot on the
ECR near Aarambakkam on April 13, 2012. The driver escaped with injuries. Bilal
demanded a reasonable compensation taking into consideration the age of the
deceased and the future prospects, including promotions.
It is
reported that policy had expired and was not in force on the date of
accident. In principle, in all such
cases, Insurers should be exonerated with no liability on them. The Policy like many other products has a
shelf-life and no benefits would inure after the expiration of the policy. The full details read from the order when
available would throw some light on the reasoning of this
order, which should shock the Insurance community at large.
With regards – S Sampathkumar
10th July 2017.
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