SC for mediation body in all districts for accident claims

NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over the delay in adjudication of compensation claim of road accident victims who suffer because of a long legal

battle

against insurance companies, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that such cases should be first decided through mediation and asked the Centre to consider setting up of accident mediation authority in each district.


A bench of Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer said that the victims should be forced to undergo pain and suffering due to delay in awarding the compensation and the mediation route should be adopted to ensure timely release of the compensation amount. It said that mediation would ensure access to justice for road accident victims and also will bring about a mechanism to prevents delays and other obstacles in awarding compensation.

“In so far as disputes regarding claims are concerned, there is a need to resolve the same at the earliest inasmuch as compensation money may be badly needed by the claimants for so many reasons and delay may bring insurmountable sufferings of various kind. Having regard to the fact that a large number of accidents are giving rise to a phenomenal

quantum jump

in such cases, methods need to be adopted for a quick resolution. Here, mediation as a concept of dispute resolution, even before dispute becomes part of an adversarial adjudicatory process, would be of great significance,” the bench said.

The bench said mediation is now finding statutory recognition and has been introduced in few statutes as well like Companies Act, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, Commercial Courts Act etc and it must be explored to settle accident claims.

“Time is ripe now to have a similar mechanism for settling accident claims as well. Therefore, the suggestion of establishing Motor Accidents Mediation Authority(MAMA) is laudable. We recommend to the Government to examine the feasibility of setting up MAMA by making necessary amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act itself. In fact, the way mediation movement is catching up in this country, there is a dire need to enact Indian Mediation Act as well,” the court said.

The court passed the order on accident claim of a lawyer M R Krishna Murti, who met an accident three decades ago in 1988 when he was a student and the accident left him with 40 percent permanent disability. He had challenged Delhi High Court order awarding him Rs 9.2 lakh compensation. Allowing his plea, the court awarded additional compensation of Rs 6.54 lakh.

The bench noted that around 1.4 lakh people die and 5 lakh get injured per year in a road accident but less than 10% of cases reach the tribunal for the claim. leaving 90% victims no access to Justice.

The court directed the National Legal

Services

Authority (NALSA) to take up the mediation for road accident cases and formulate scheme until the law is passed by the Parliament. “In the interregnum, NALSA is directed to set up Motor Accident Mediation Cell which can function independently under the

aegis

of NALSA or can be handed over to Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee (MCPC). Such a project should be prepared within a period of two months and it should start functioning immediately thereafter at various levels,” the bench said.

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