Compensation must be through E-transfer: Madras High Court

The District Legal Services Authority can facilitate and provide assistance in this regard to the claimants, the bench added.

By :  J Stalin
Update: 2016-04-05 01:02 GMT
Madras High Court

Chennai: In a landmark judgment, which will enable the claimants to compensation to get the award amount in full, the Madras high court has made it as a rule that the payment to the beneficiary in a road accident claim, should be through e-transfer into the claimant’s bank account.

“While the judicial system is endeavouring to provide speedy justice and early disbursal of such compensation, it has to play a major role in ensuring that the compensation reaches the victims/claimants without undue delay and without there being any form of digression of compensation. Courts cannot be mute spectator to dissipation of the compensation to the benefit of and at the hands of third parties. It is failure of justice, if just compensation does not reach those victims/claimants”, said a division bench comprising Justices R Sudhakar and S Vaidyanathan.

Giving a set of directions to the Claims Tribunal, the bench said, “With the intention to safeguard the interest of the victims/claimants and to ensure that the victims/claimants get full compensation, less the legal costs, certain directions need to be issued to the Tribunals to scrupulously follow”.

The Claims Tribunal shall without exception, at the time of commencement of trial and evidence on the side of claimants, obtain and ensure that the bank account details of all the claimants should be made available. It shall also obtain and ensure the marking of Pan Card of all the claimants, wherever available and if the claimant does not have a Pan Card, the Tribunal shall advise the importance of having such a card to avoid higher Tax Deduction at Source. The District Legal Services Authority can facilitate and provide assistance in this regard to the claimants, the bench added.

The bench said the Claims Tribunal shall, as a matter of rule, direct the insurance companies or transport corporations or such other entities held liable to pay the compensation, to deposit the award sum to the credit of the bank account of the Claims Tribunal directly by National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) or Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) mode.

The Claims Tribunal shall ensure that as and when an order was passed for disbursal of compensation amount, it will ensure that such disbursal of compensation shall be made directly to the credit of the bank account of the claimant/victim by NEFT or RTGS. The bank account details of the claimant/victim shall be stated in the award/order of the Claims Tribunal, the bench added.

The bench said after considering the effectiveness of this procedure, it can be implemented in respect of all other cases involving such bank transactions. For instance cases pertaining to land acquisition, rent control, family court etc., besides execution petitions, can follow this procedure, the bench
added.

The bench observed, “We are alive to the fact that large number of victims/claimants are illiterates or uneducated and they are unable to wade through the justice delivery system. They become victims of delayed compensation and settle for lesser compensation as against recipient of just compensation.

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