Who May Claim, and against Whom

In one line

The injured person, the owner of damaged property or the legal representatives of the deceased may apply within six months, and the police report itself counts as an application.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 166(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, allows an application for compensation to be made by the person who has sustained the injury, by the owner of the property, by all or any of the legal representatives of the deceased, or by a duly authorised agent; section 166(3), restored by the 2019 amendment, requires the application to be made within six months of the accident; section 166(4) makes the police accident information report under section 159 an application in itself; and section 167 forces a claimant to elect between this Act and the employees' compensation law.

Who may apply: section 166(1)

An application for compensation arising out of an accident of the nature specified in section 165(1) may be made:

(a) by the person who has sustained the injury; or

(b) by the owner of the property; or

(c) where death has resulted from the accident, by all or any of the legal representatives of the deceased; or

(d) by any agent duly authorised by the person injured or by all or any of the legal representatives of the deceased.

The first proviso protects the absent representatives. Where all the legal representatives have not joined, the application shall be made on behalf of or for the benefit of all of them, and those who have not joined shall be impleaded as respondents.

The second proviso, inserted in 2019, makes the settlement route exclusive. Where a person accepts compensation under section 164 in accordance with the procedure provided under section 149, his claim petition before the Claims Tribunal shall lapse.

The expression "legal representative" is read generously.

Facts. The question was who may claim as a legal representative of a person killed in a motor accident. Held. In Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation v. Ramanbhai Prabhatbhai, (1987) 3 SCC 234, the Supreme Court held that the Act is a beneficial legislation and that the expression legal representative is not confined to the heirs under the personal law; a person who suffers loss by the death, such as a brother of the deceased, may maintain the claim. Why it matters here. It settles that the claim is not a succession proceeding, and it is the case to cite when an insurer objects to the standing of a claimant.

Jurisdiction and limitation: section 166(2) and (3)

Sub-section (2) gives the claimant a choice of three Tribunals. The application shall be made, at the option of the claimant, to the Claims Tribunal having jurisdiction over the area in which the accident occurred, or to the Tribunal within whose local limits the claimant resides or carries on business, or to the Tribunal within whose local limits the defendant resides, and shall be in the prescribed form with the prescribed particulars. A proviso to this sub-section was omitted with effect from 1 April 2022.