Telangana, Andhra Pradesh pulled up for not giving accident reports to tribunals

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday directed the Principal Secretaries of the Home Department and the Director General of Police of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to file affidavits explaining the reasons for not furnishing the details of road accidents to the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunals. A division bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K. Vijaya Lakshmi had heard a PIL by Yogesh Tandava, a law student challenging the inaction of the police authorities in furnishing details before the tribunals.

He told the court that Section 158(6) of the Motor Vehicles Act mandated that the Station House Officers have to provide the details of all road accident to the tribunal within 30 days of registration of a road accident case. Stating that the Station House Officers in both states do not follow this rule, he brought to the notice of the court that the police have furnished the details of only 27,708 cases to the tribunals out of 3.67 lakh cases registered in AP since 1995.

He reminded that the Supreme Court, in 2009, had also directed all the state governments to ensure that the road accident cases details be submitted to the tribunals. He said that due to the non-submission of details, the victims of road accidents are facing hardships in getting compensations. While issuing notices to the respondents, the bench adjourned the case for three weeks.