Two years after a bus accident that caused her pain and misery, justice was delivered to Geetha Hari, a housewife, on Wednesday.
At the anteroom of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) court, Ernakulam, the representative of Oriental Insurance Company, a public sector undertaking, handed over a cheque of ₹90,000 to Ms. Hari. The day thus marked the beginning of a justice deliverance system in which the judiciary took up the battle for justice without waiting for victims to approach courts.
The case of Ms. Hari, who fell off a private bus at Kadavanthra Junction, stands out from the rest of the motor accident claim cases as she had not preferred any claim petitions. It was the MACT court that identified the victim from the hundreds of Accident Information Reports (AIR) filed by the police and completed the spadework for putting forward her claim for compensation.
SC directive
The Supreme Court had earlier instructed MACT courts across the country to consider AIRs as claim petitions and push the case of compensation for victims, judicial sources said.
The MACT court, Ernakulam, issued notices to victims in around 2,000 accident cases to identify eligible candidates who had not filed their claim petitions. Notices were issued on the basis of the AIR filed by the police and as many as 10 eligible persons were identified in the process. The court began the negotiations for the victim after obtaining her consent and collecting all relevant records.
The District Legal Services Authority and the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ernakulam, provided the logistic support for securing justice for the victim, according to MACT court authorities.
Usually in MACT cases, it would be the lawyers who would be pushing the case of their clients. Here, the MACT court itself took up the cause of the victim, who hailed from a poor family, and bargained the compensation from the insurance company.
The final settlement amount was arrived at after considering the medical expense of ₹10,000 incurred by her and her travel expenses to reach the Ernakulam court from her home town, Alappuzha, they explained.
Four more cases, which were identified by the court, were in the pipeline, they said.
