Mumbai: Bombay high court dismissed as “inconsequential” an insurance company’s plea to exclude five years that a victim’s kin took to pay court fees from the period of interest it has to pay for compensation awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), Mumbai. The HC order does not mention the compensation amount.The Oriental Insurance Co Ltd appealed against a Jan 2010 order of the MACT, which directed it to pay compensation with interest from the date of filing of the claim application. The claim was filed in 1999, 11 years earlier. The claim application filing formality is complete when court fees are paid, and since the fees were paid five years later, they be excluded from interest payment, the insurance company argued.The HC single-judge bench of Justice Jitendra Jain on April 7, deciding the issue, said the Motor Vehicles Act under Section 171 provides for payment of simple interest from the date the claim is filed, not before. The judge said any interpretation to mean that the time taken to complete fee payment should be excluded would amount to reading something into the Act, which is impermissible in the absence of any express provision in law. Justice Jain also said that MACT “generally takes minimum 5 to 7 years” to decide claim applications, hence even if court fee was paid immediately, the claim would have taken years to be decided. The insurance company, represented by advocate Devendranath Joshi, submitted that if the victim’s widow paid the fees within a reasonable period, the MACT would have decided earlier and the company would not be saddled with an 11-year liability on interest payment.As a quick urgent relief, Section 140 of the MV Act, 1988, provides for a ‘no fault liability’ requiring vehicle owners to pay fixed compensation of Rs 50,000 for death and Rs 25,000 for permanent disablement, with no proof required of negligence. Advocate T J Mendon for the widow and son, Andheri residents of a housing society, said the MACT passed the Section 140 order in 2003. Mendon said it was a practice at MACT that court fees are paid after such order since most applicants cannot afford them. The insurance company said despite the 2003 order, the claimants took one more year to pay, which HC said was “reasonable”. The HC reasoned that claims are sought often by the poor people under a social welfare legislation. The HC also said “during this period the amount, though awarded subsequently, remained with the insurance company who had utilised this money for their own business, cannot be brushed aside”.The HC said it thus found no infirmity in the MACT order and directed that the compensation be paid with interest till April 7, 2026.
