JOIN USRoad accident: No need for personal complaint, says HC
Holding that there is no requirement in law for giving a complaint personally in road accident cases, the high court has directed an insurance company to pay Rs 54 lakh compensation to an accident victim, a former sergeant of Indian
Air Force.
The accident had left the victim paralyzed and he was discharged from service in December 2010. He is presently residing in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. He moved the high court after a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal at Belagavi rejected his claim for Rs 42 lakh compensation. The Tribunal had rejected the claim on the ground that the victim had not personally filed the complaint against the driver of the offending
vehicle. Allowing the appeal, a division bench comprising Justices P B Bajantri and M G S Kamal said it was unfortunate that the Tribunal did not take into consideration the Medico Legal Case - FIR on the complaint by the doctor on the day of the accident.
“Obviously, the claimant could not be expected under the circumstance to personally follow up the First Information Report given by the duty doctor to the South Traffic Police, Camp, Belagavi. It was the duty on the part of the concerned police to have registered the case and taken up the investigation and failure on the part of the police cannot be faulted with the claimant,” the bench said.
The bench, after going through the entire records, also pointed out that the victim had equally contributed to the accident. The bench said the victim was therefore entitled to 50% of the total compensation of Rs 1.08 crore.
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The victim had suffered serious injuries to his spinal cord in the accident on the evening of February 3, 2007. He had rammed his motorcycle into a passenger tempo, which overtook him, moved to the left and stopped all of a sudden to pick up passengers.