In fatal road accidents, Delhi police is set to file all reports within 10 days

While a few cases have been settled within the stipulated time, Delhi has seen several cases remain unresolved for decades.

New Delhi: On May 26, 1988, MR Krishna Murthi, an 18-year-old student at Modern School Delhi, suffered a road accident, while travelling along with his mother from Delhi to Mussoorie to celebrate his 18th birthday the next day. That accident took place on the Delhi-Dehradun highway, in which his entire left leg was crushed. After that, his treatment continued for six long years, during which he underwent three major operations. Because of the accident, he has a permanent disability (pain and difficulty in locomotion) today.

Under the provisions of FDAR, a maximum period of 10 days has been stipulated for amicable resolution of the claim in select fatal accident cases and disbursal of the compensation amount to the family of the deceased.  (HT File Photo)

Murthy, a practising lawyer at the Supreme Court, filed an application claiming compensation before the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (MACT), Muzzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh), as the accident took place in the area within the jurisdiction of that MACT branch. However, on his application for transfer of the claim petition, the court passed orders on January 12, 1998, transferring the case to MACT, Patiala House, New Delhi. The MACT, after the conclusion of the trial, rendered its award on May 23, 2007, attributing negligence to the driver of the ambassador, the car which hit the vehicle that Murthy was travelling in, and awarded Murthy a sum of ₹8,48,000, 19 years after the accident.

Murthy, however, is not an exception.

On September 16, 2022, a double bench of the Supreme Court, awarded compensation of ₹62.35 lakh after around 25 years, to an ex-Merchant Navy personnel who met with an accident in 1997 which led to an amputation of the right upper limb below the elbow.

Taking note of the serious delays in compensation in road accident cases, the Supreme Court, on May 13, 2016, issued a direction that the DAR (detailed accident report) regime shall be implemented throughout the country. It finally resulted in the establishment of FDAR (fast detail accident report), which asked all the stakeholders, to settle, award, and disburse claims in select fatal accident cases within 10 days.

A senior officer of Delhi police, asking not to be named, said that five conditions have been put for claim under FDAR. “It includes accidents occurred due to the rash and negligent driving of the offending vehicle, driver of the offending vehicle holding a valid driving license, offending vehicle insured at the time of the accident, commercial vehicle having a valid permit and fitness certificate and no violation of the insurance policy such as drunken driving or the vehicle being driven by a minor. The stakeholders involved in the settlement of these claims are police, general insurance company, insurance companies, medical authorities, transport authorities, legal services authority, MACT Tribunal and claimants or legal heirs,” he said.

He also said that under the provisions of FDAR, a maximum period of 10 days has been stipulated for amicable resolution of the claim in select fatal accident cases and disbursal of the compensation amount to the family of the deceased. “The 10-day timeline is divided between police, insurance companies and tribunal in the ratio 5:3:2 days, commencing from the day of the occurrence of the accident,” he added.

It may be noted that in a first, the family of a Delhi Police constable, who was mowed down by a car in May, received compensation of ₹32 lakh within 10 days of the incident. As per the information given by the Delhi police, they were the first in the country to resolve a road accident case within 10 days of the incident by filing an FDAR and offering compensation to the victim’s family.

However, settling one or two cases within the stipulated time will not be enough. According to the data from the Delhi police, the national Capital has recorded over 3,800 deaths in road accidents between 2019 and 2021 and only 425 FDARs have been filed in these cases so far.

Even for the non-fatal road accidents, the Delhi police have now decided to resolve the case within 90 days of the incident. “The motor accident cases usually take up to months to be investigated and insurance companies take longer to provide compensation. But, now a deadline of 90 days has been set to file the DAR, which will help the victim’s family in getting the compensation,” said the spokesperson of Delhi police.

The spokesperson also said the investigating officer (IO) will have to submit the interim accident report to the Claimstime frame Tribunal within 50 days. “The IO will have to complete the criminal investigation and file the report before the criminal court concerned within 60 days and will have to complete the verification of the information and documents and submit the DAR to the tribunal within 90 days. Within this time-frame, it will have to submit a DAR to the insurance company, which will have to carry out the verification and submit its report within 30 days,” the officer said.

A senior officer of the ministry of road transport and highways, said that the ministry has recently developed the portal named “e-DAR” (e-Detailed Accident Report), where the DAR will be uploaded for easy access. “The web portal will be linked to the Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD). From iRAD, applications to more than 90% of the datasets would be pushed directly to the e-DAR. All the stakeholders will have to enter very minimal information for the e-DAR forms. Thus, e-DAR would be an extension and e-version of iRAD,” he said, asking not to be named.