The Delhi High Court recently directed the Centre to enforce the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act to grant compensation to victims of road accidents caused by uninsured vehicles within six months’ time. A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonim Prasad was hearing a plea moved by the legal heirs of a person, Dinesh Sehgal, who died in a road accident on August 22, 2011, caused by an uninsured tractor, raising serious concerns in respect of accidents caused by the uninsured vehicles and in hit and run cases. Sehgal’s family moved the High Court in 2012 seeking various prayers. They sought a direction to the Centre to implement various provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and rules and implement various orders/directions/advisories passed by the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court by way of its judicial pronouncements. The plea further sought various amendments under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, in order to ensure that a victim gets compensation even if the accident is caused by an uninsured vehicle and in hit-and-run cases. It also sought a direction to the Centre to explain the measures adopted by them since 2009 to curb the menace of uninsured vehicles plying on road, those driving without effective and valid driving licenses, fake driving licenses, and drunken driving. The family drew the court's attention to certain provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, which were recently inserted and submitted that "now a scheme is in place for granting compensation to the road accident victims even if the accident causing vehicle is uninsured". It was argued that even though the law provides for this, the Government of India has "yet not framed any rules or guidelines in this respect". The Centre submitted the new provisions were inserted through an amendment in the Motor Vehicles Act which has come into force with effect from April 1, 2022, and, therefore, "some breathing time be granted to the Union of India" to ensure the implementation of the provisions throughout the country. Considering the Centre's submission the High Court in its January 11 decision directed, "Resultantly, as the statute provides for a remedy for grant of compensation to the road accident victims even if the accident causing vehicle is uninsured as well as in the accidents caused by hit-and-run cases, Union of India is granted six months’ time to enforce the provisions which are now in the statute books," said the court and disposed of the plea.
