The Hindu : New Delhi News : Modalities for release of seized buses framed

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Thursday, Sep 25, 2008
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New Delhi

Modalities for release of seized buses framed

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday framed modalities for release of seized Blueline and DTC buses involved in accidents causing fatalities or grievous injuries and disbursement of the money recovered from them as fines to the victims under a Court-devised scheme.

Pronouncing the modalities, a division bench of the Court comprising Justices A.P. Shah and S. Muralidhar said from now on, owners of city buses involved in accidents would be able to get their seized vehicles back from the traffic police by depositing with the Metropolitan Magistrate concerned Rs.1 lakh in case of fatal accident and Rs.50,000 in case of the victim being hit grievously.

The Court included DTC buses on a plea by private bus owners that the law should apply to the public sector transport undertaking also.

However, the Bench made it mandatory for the families of the dead and injured to file claims in the Motor Accident Claims Tribunals for monetary compensation from insurers of these vehicles.

At the time of receiving the compensation from the corpus of fine amounts recovered from errant buses, the family members of the victim would give an undertaking to the court concerned that they would initiate action seeking compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act, the High Court order said.

It also said the compensation paid to the victims from the corpus would be deducted from the amounts paid to the victims by the insurance company following a decision by the Tribunals.

It further said the licences of bus drivers involved in accidents would be impounded and their details put on the Delhi government website.

Further, it said the police would immediately inform the Delhi Legal Services Authority and the court concerned about lodging of an accident case.

The scheme would come into force with immediate effect. Its efficacy would be assessed after two months, and if found effective, it would be made permanent, the Bench said.

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