Maharashtra Cops directed to submit DAR for road accidents within 30 days
The Supreme Court has laid a total of 100 points that the police must cover in its DAR.
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BEGINNING this month, police stations across Maharashtra will be required to inform about an accident to the regional motor accident claims tribunal within 48 hours and submit a Detailed Accident Report (DAR) to it within 30 days. The move, aimed at helping victims of road accident secure compensation from insurance companies, came into effect April 1, following two orders from the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court that spell out detailed directions to the police and insurance companies. Under the new order, police stations are now required to maintain a separate diary to record motor accidents and inform the tribunal in its jurisdiction about injury or death caused in those accidents. The guidelines were issued by the Delhi HC in its 2009 order in Rajesh Tyagi vs Jaibir Singh and others, and detailed orders of the SC in its 2016 order in Jayprakash vs National Insurance Company.
The Supreme Court has laid a total of 100 points that the police must cover in its DAR. “Earlier, we submitted the DAR or chargesheet to the tribunal as and when our investigation was over. The rules stipulate that the report must be submitted within 30 days,” said a senior Mumbai police official.
The DAR, the official added, is to include details of the victim, the driver, the vehicle, licence and insurance documents, medical certificates, hospital bills, pictures of the accident, a plan of the site and proof that the accident affected the victim’s ability to earn a livelihood.
“The report is to be so detailed that it should also make a mention of the skid marks made by the vehicle involved in the accident,” the official said. The order grants an extension of 15 days to the police in case its report does not satisfy all 100 points of investigation. However, if the report is found incomplete by the tribunal at the end of extension, the investigating officer is liable for prosecution, the order states. Police inspector (crime) at each police station has been made responsible for implementation of the order.
Police are also required to provide copies of the FIR and DAR to the victim, and the offender at the end of investigation, apart from informing them of dates of hearing at the tribunal.
Police personnel, however, are concerned over the expected rise in costs of photocopies of detailed documents, which they are forced to pay from their own pockets. “The court does not seem to be concerned with how we will pay for multiple copies of large documents. Already, we have to pay for copies of documents for other investigations and hope that it will be reimbursed in the investigation fund,” said an inspector at a police station in Mumbai.
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