Nearly one crore vehicles running without valid insurance in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh; plea filed in High Court
Nearly one crore vehicles are running on roads without valid insurance in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. Highlighting this serious issue, a fresh application has been filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court during the hearing of a public interest litigation related to the effective implementation of the Motor Vehicles Act. The High Court is scheduled to hear the matter on March 10. The absence of vehicle insurance is creating serious hurdles for accident victims in receiving compensation.
The application has been filed by Mohali based advocate Kunwar Pahul Singh, who has cited data presented in Parliament by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The plea states that a large number of vehicles across the tricity and the two states are running without third party insurance, which is not only a violation of the law but also a major concern for victims of road accidents.
According to the data submitted before the court, Chandigarh has around 14.27 lakh registered vehicles, of which more than two lakh are running without valid insurance. In Haryana, out of nearly 1.3 crore vehicles, more than 41 lakh do not have insurance. The situation in Punjab is even more alarming, where over 56 lakh vehicles out of around 1.3 crore registered vehicles are plying without valid insurance. In percentage terms, nearly 15 percent vehicles in Chandigarh, 32 percent in Haryana and around 42 percent in Punjab are running without insurance.
The plea states that such a situation is affecting the objective of providing timely compensation to road accident victims. Normally, after a road accident, victims or their dependents file a claim before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal seeking compensation. The tribunal examines the facts and circumstances of the case, determines the amount of compensation and decides who will be responsible for the payment. If the vehicle is insured, the victim’s family can relatively easily receive compensation from the insurance company. However, if the vehicle is uninsured, the responsibility to pay compensation falls directly on the driver or the owner of the vehicle.
In such cases, recovering the compensation amount becomes extremely difficult. Often the driver or owner does not have sufficient assets in their name, forcing victim families to wait for long periods and, in some cases, they fail to receive compensation altogether.
The plea further states that in many accident cases the police do not file the Accident Information Report before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal on time, which further delays the compensation process. It also refers to a recent administrative order issued by the High Court directing all District and Sessions Judges in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to monitor that compensation amounts in motor accident cases are transferred directly to the bank accounts of victims.
However, the application raises the question that if a large number of vehicles continue to run on roads without valid insurance, how the objective of providing timely compensation to accident victims will be achieved.