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Synopsis

The Supreme Court has said that merely because the FIR was delayed, it cannot be a ground to reject a plea for claim petition filed under the Motor Vehicles Act for compensation.

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah allowed a petition filed by New India Assurance Co Ltd against the Madras High Court's order of July 5, 2018, which directed for payment of Rs 11.50 lakh to the injured claimant.

"In a given case a delayed FIR will not matter. Merely because the FIR has been delayed a claim cannot be rejected but in the present case considering that all the available evidences points out towards a skid and fall and not a motor accident, the delayed FIR also, require a relevance, particularly now 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 bench said.

Velu, the claimant in a motor accident, claimed he sustained injuries due to a motor accident while he was driving his two wheeler scooter and he collided and met with an accident with a four wheeler-lorry on December 27, 2011.

He had filed a claim petition for Rs 20 lakh before the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal at Chennai. However, the Tribunal had found no evidence of a motor accident inasmuch as the entire details of the hospital where the injuries were examined and treated showed that the same were sustained due to skid and fall from scooter.

The bench noted this is what has been noted in the discharge summary given by the hospital and the respondent no 1 claiming that he was admitted and subsequently he was discharged and thereafter when he took treatment from another hospital the same reason was written in the discharge summary from that hospital too that accident occurred due to skid and fall.

For this reason, the Tribunal has not found any evidence as to the motor accident and has dismissed the claim of the respondent no 1 particularly in view of the fact and also taking into consideration that the FIR was lodged on January 30 2012 whereas the accident itself took place on December 27, 2011.

The FIR itself was lodged after a delay of 34 days. The matter was taken in appeal where the order/award of the Tribunal has been set aside by the High court on the ground that mere delay of FIR cannot be a ground of rejecting the claim of the respondent no 1.

The High Court had ordered the claim of Rupees 11.50 lakh along with interest at the rate 7.5 % to be paid within a period of six weeks. In default the chairman of the petitioner-insurance company will be present in the High Court.

After hearing the counsel for both the parties at length, the bench said, "We 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."

Under these circumstances, the bench allowed the prayer of the petitioner-insurance company and set aside the order passed by the High Court of Judicature at Madras.