The Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of a Motor Accident Compensation Claim observing that all the available evidences points out towards a skid and fall and not a motor accident.

The Court was hearing a Special Leave Petition filed by an insurance company against a Madras High Court Judgment that had directed the company to pay a claim amounting to a few lakh rupees on the ground that delay in filing the FIR was not valid ground to deny a claim.The High Court had reversed the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal Order denying the claimant insurance money on the ground that his injuries were not due to an accident.

A two-Judge Bench comprising Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah held, "Merely because the FIR has been delayed a claim cannot be rejected" but based on the peculiar circumstances of the present case, added, "[C]onsidering that all the available evidences points out towards a skid and fall and not a motor accident, the delayed FIR also, require relevance, particularly now [that] we have been told that FIR itself has not been proceeded. Even the police in the FIR also came to the conclusion that there was no motor accident and had filed a closure report." the Court noted further.

Advocate Salil Paul appeared for the Petitioner and Advocate Vipin Nair appeared for the Respondent.

The Court's Order implies that though a delay in the registration of an FIR in a motor accident case would not itself make a claimant ineligible to claim insurance, it would count as a relevant factor when coupled with other facts.

The Court concluded that the High Court's Order was unsustainable. The Court said, "[W]e do not think that the order of the High Court is sustainable for the simple reason that there was not even an iota of evidence before the Tribunal or before the High Court to have shown that the injuries was sustained in a motor accident except for the delayed FIR. In a given case a delayed FIR will not matter."

Therefore, the Court allowed the prayer of the insurance company and set aside the High Court's Order granting him the insurance claim.

The Respondent had claimed that he sustained injuries due to a motor accident while driving a scooter after colliding with a four-wheeler lorry on December 27, 2011. The FIR was filed after a delay of 34 days, on January 30, 2011.

On the incident itself, the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal found no evidence of a motor accident after examining the details of his hospital discharge summary. The Tribunal concluded that the injuries showed that they were sustained due to a skid and fall from scooter. For this reason and in view of the delay in filing the FIR, the Respondent's claim before the Tribunal was rejected.

While hearing a Civil Miscellaneous Appeal against the Tribunal's Order, the Madras High Court set aside Tribunal's decision on the ground that delay in the registration of the FIR could not have been be a ground to reject the claim of the Respondent. The High Court ordered the insurance company to pay a claim amounting to around 11 lakh rupees with interest within a set period.

On the delayed FIR, the High Court said, "Merely because, the F.I.R has been registered after one month, it cannot be said that there was no accident. There are many reasons for non registration. Even immediately, after admission into hospital, the hospital authorities would have given notification to the nearest police station about the accident. If there is any violation on the part of the police personal, it cannot be put against the claimant."

"It is a very sorry state of affairs that if any person approaches the police station with a complaint, the complaint are not registered automatically by the police. Therefore, this issue compelling many parties to approach this court under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. Therefore, non registeration of F.I.R. in time, is no way take way the rights of the claimant." the Court said further.

Cause Title: New India Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Velu And Anr. [Special Leave Petition(C) 32138/2018]

Appearance;

Petitioner: Advocates Salil Paul, Sahil Paul, Manjeet Chawla and Sandeep Dayal

Respondents: Vipin Nair, M.B.Ramya, P.B. Sashaankh, Mohd Aman Alam, Aditya Narendranath and Madhavi Yadav

Click here to read/download the Order


Tushar Kohli