Insurance investigators are entitled under the law to access records relating to road accidents and police cannot deny such details by treating them as “third party”, the Tamil Nadu Information Commission has ruled.
Passing orders on an appeal filed by an Insurance Investigator K. Karuppiah of Madurai, who challenged the denial of a fatal road accident case documents sought by him under the Right to Information Act, 2005, the Commission citing a Supreme Court ruling said the petitioner was well within the legal framework to access the road accident case details.
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In June 2018, Mr. Karuppiah wrote to the Ramanathapuram Town Crime Inspector seeking copies of the insurance copy, Registration Certificate, driving licence; permit copy, First Information Report, sketch of accident scene, wound certificate and post-mortem copy of a fatal road accident.
The public authority refused to divulge any information on the grounds that it could not be shared with a “third party”.
He stated that the information could be shared only with the affected persons only. The petitioner filed an appeal before the first appellate authority and not satisfied with the reply moved the Tamil Nadu Information Commission. After hearing both sides, State Information Commissioner T. Dhakshinamurthy held that the denial of information to the Insurance Investigator on the grounds that he was a “third party” was incorrect and unacceptable.
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He said the Supreme Court in the General Insurance Council and others versus the State of Andhra Pradesh had ruled that police should share accident documents should be shared by the police with Insurance Investigators in order to provide suitable compensation to the victims at the earliest.
The Director-General of Police had also issued a circular in this regard.
Case closed
After the Ramanathapuram police, represented by the Additional Superintendent of Police, agreed to provide the documents sought by the petitioner during the course of the hearing, the Commission closed the case.
Mr. Dhakshinamurthy advised the Ramanathapuram Superintendent of Police to instruct all police stations in the district to ensure that road accident documents sought by Insurance Investigator be issued without any delay.