The Application for Compensation

where a person accepts compensation under section 164 in accordance with the procedure provided under section 149, his claims petition before the Claims Tribunal shall lapse.

What this means in practice. Section 164 gives five lakh rupees for death and two and a half lakh for grievous hurt without proof of fault. Section 149 obliges the insurer to offer settlement on the accident information report. A claimant who takes that offer has settled; the pending petition falls away. A claimant who thinks the true loss is larger does not accept, and litigates for just compensation under section 168.

To which Tribunal, and in what form: section 166(2)

At the option of the claimant, to the Tribunal

• having jurisdiction over the area in which the accident occurred, or
• within whose local limits the claimant resides or carries on business, or
• within whose local limits the defendant resides,

and in such form and with such particulars as may be prescribed by rules under section 176. The old proviso, which required a statement where no claim under the repealed section 140 was made, was omitted with effect from 1 April 2022.

Three fora, and the choice belongs to the claimant. An injured migrant worker treated in his home State need not travel back to the district of the accident.

By when: section 166(3)

No application for compensation shall be entertained unless it is made within six months of the occurrence of the accident.

This sub-section was inserted by section 53 of the amending Act and came into force on 1 April 2022. The history matters, because most textbooks a student will pick up were written in the gap:

Note what the new sub-section does not contain: any power to condone delay. Contrast section 173(1), where the second proviso lets the High Court entertain a late appeal for sufficient cause.

The police report is an application: sections 159 and 166(4)

Section 159. The police officer shall, during the investigation, prepare an accident information report to facilitate the settlement of the claim, in such form and manner and containing such particulars as may be prescribed, within three months, and submit it to the Claims Tribunal and to such other agency as may be prescribed.

Section 166(4). The Claims Tribunal shall treat any report of accidents forwarded to it under section 159 as an application for compensation under this Act. Before 1 April 2022 the cross-reference was to section 158(6).

This is the most student-friendly provision in the Chapter. A family that never files anything still has a claim before the Tribunal, because the police report is deemed to be the application.

Survival of the claim: section 166(5)

Inserted with effect from 1 April 2022. Notwithstanding anything in this Act or any other law, the right of a person to claim compensation for injury in an accident shall, upon the death of the person injured, survive to their legal representatives, irrespective of whether the cause of death is relatable to or had any nexus with the injury or not.

It abolishes a familiar unfairness. An injured claimant who died of an unrelated illness while the petition crawled on used to leave the petition to fail; now it survives.

The papers: sections 158 and 160

Section 158(1). A driver in a public place must, on being required by an authorised police officer in uniform, produce the certificate of insurance, the certificate of registration, the pollution under control certificate, the driving licence, and, for a transport vehicle, the certificate of fitness under section 56 and the permit, and any certificate of exemption.

Section 158(2). Where an accident involving death or bodily injury occurs and the driver does not produce them at the time, the driver or the owner shall produce them at the police station where the driver makes the report required by section 134.

Section 158(3). No conviction for failure to produce if the certificate is produced within seven days at the police station specified, subject to a proviso for transport vehicles.

Section 158(4) and (5). The owner must give information required for determining whether the vehicle was being driven in contravention of section 146, that is, uninsured; and "produce the certificate of insurance" means production for examination of the certificate or other prescribed evidence.

Section 160. A registering authority or the officer in charge of a police station must, on being required by a person who alleges entitlement to claim compensation, or by an insurer against whom a claim has been made, and on payment of the prescribed fee, furnish the identification marks and other particulars of the vehicle, the name and address of the person who was using it at the time of the accident or was injured by it, and the property damaged.

Section 160 is how a claimant who has only a registration number finds out whom to sue and who insured them.

A worked example

A pedestrian in Nashik is knocked down on 2 May and dies on 5 May, leaving a widow, a minor son and a married daughter. The married daughter alone comes to a lawyer in Pune, where she lives.

May she apply alone? Yes, under section 166(1)(c), all or any of the legal representatives may apply; but by the first proviso her application must be made on behalf of or for the benefit of all, and the widow and the son must be impleaded as respondents.

Where? At her option: Nashik, where the accident occurred, or Pune, where she resides, or where the defendant resides. Section 166(2).

By when? Within six months of the occurrence of the accident, that is by 2 November, under section 166(3), which contains no power to condone delay.

What if nobody files anything? The police officer's accident information report, prepared during the investigation and submitted to the Tribunal within three months under section 159, is treated by section 166(4) as an application for compensation.

She does not know who owned the bus. Section 160: on payment of the prescribed fee the registering authority or the officer in charge of the police station must furnish the particulars of the vehicle and the name and address of the person using it.

The insurer offers five lakh under section 164 and she takes it. By the second proviso to section 166(1) the claims petition lapses.

What it does NOT mean

Legal representative does not mean dependant. Manjuri Bera.

The six-month bar is not the old law. For twenty-seven years there was none, and books written in that period say so.

Section 166(4) does not make the police report an award. It makes it an application; the Tribunal still holds the inquiry under section 168.

Section 158 is not part of the claim machinery alone. It is a policing provision whose by-product is a record of the papers of the vehicle.

Quick revision

1. Section 166(1): injured person, owner of property, all or any legal representatives on death, or a duly authorised agent; non-joining representatives are impleaded as respondents.
2. Second proviso to section 166(1), from 1 April 2022: accepting compensation under section 164 through the section 149 procedure makes the petition lapse.
3. Section 166(2): claimant's option of three fora, accident, claimant's residence or business, defendant's residence.
4. Section 166(3), from 1 April 2022: six months from the accident, with no power to condone.
5. Section 166(4): a section 159 police report is treated as an application. Section 159: within three months, in the prescribed form, to the Tribunal.
6. Section 166(5): the injured person's claim survives to the legal representatives even if death is unconnected with the injury.
7. Section 160: particulars of the vehicle and its user, on payment of the prescribed fee.
8. Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation v. Ramanbhai Prabhatbhai, AIR 1987 SC 1690: a brother may claim as a legal representative; Manjuri Bera v. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd, (2007) 10 SCC 643: a legal representative who is not a dependant may still take the fixed statutory amount.

Test yourself

1. Who may apply for compensation under section 166, and to which Tribunal? By section 166(1) an application may be made by the person who sustained the injury, by the owner of the property damaged, by all or any of the legal representatives where death has resulted, or by an agent duly authorised by the injured person or by the legal representatives. Where all the legal representatives have not joined, the first proviso requires the application to be made on behalf of or for the benefit of all, and those not joining to be impleaded as respondents. The class of legal representatives is read widely: in Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation v. Ramanbhai Prabhatbhai, AIR 1987 SC 1690, the brothers of a boy killed by a bus were held entitled to maintain the petition, the Court holding that every legal representative who suffers on account of the death should have a remedy; and in Manjuri Bera v. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd, (2007) 10 SCC 643, a married daughter who was not a dependant was held entitled to the fixed statutory amount, which forms part of the estate. By section 166(2) the application is made, at the claimant's option, to the Tribunal for the area where the accident occurred, or where the claimant resides or carries on business, or where the defendant resides.

2. What is the period of limitation for a motor accident claim? Six months from the occurrence of the accident, under section 166(3), which was inserted by section 53 of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019 and brought into force on 1 April 2022 by S.O. 859(E) of 25 February 2022. The provision is important precisely because it changed the law: an earlier sub-section (3) was omitted with effect from 14 November 1994, and from that date until 31 March 2022 the Act prescribed no period of limitation for a claim at all, so that a claim could be made years after the accident. The new sub-section is expressed as a bar on entertaining the application and contains no power to condone delay, which may be contrasted with the second proviso to section 173(1), under which the High Court may entertain a late appeal if satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause.

3. How does a claim reach the Tribunal without the family filing anything? Through sections 159 and 166(4). Section 159 requires the police officer, during the investigation, to prepare an accident information report to facilitate the settlement of the claim, in such form and manner and containing such particulars as may be prescribed, within three months, and to submit it to the Claims Tribunal and to such other agency as may be prescribed. Section 166(4) then provides that the Claims Tribunal shall treat any report forwarded to it under section 159 as an application for compensation under the Act. The cross-reference was changed from section 158(6) to section 159 with effect from 1 April 2022. Once the report is before the Tribunal the ordinary machinery follows: notice to the insurer, an inquiry under section 168, and an award of just compensation. Section 160 supports the same object by obliging a registering authority or an officer in charge of a police station, on payment of the prescribed fee, to furnish the particulars of the vehicle and of the person who was using it.