Why no amendment to MCOP rules?
The judge said pursuant to the earlier order, the 7 advocates engaged their counsel to represent them.
Chennai: The Madras high court has asked the Advocate General to get instructions from the state government and inform the court as to why no amendment has been made to the MCOP (Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Original Petition) Rules for giving legal imprimatur to the crime and criminal tracking networks and systems online platform that has now been put in place. Justice P . N. Prakash sought the above information after it was reported that till date, the state government have not amended the MCOP Rules.
The judge had on November 15 ordered notice to 7 advocates, calling upon them to appear and submit their explanation to the specific queries posted to each of them relating to duplicate claims made before various Motor Accident Claims Tribunal in road accident cases.
The judge said pursuant to the earlier order, the 7 advocates engaged their counsel to represent them. Four advocates filed their reply and the remaining sought time to file their reply. S.Ravichandran, DSP, CBCID (Metro), Chennai and Mrs R.Thilagavathi, Inspector of Police, CB-CID (Metro), Chennai were present before this court. The CB-CID have submitted a report in a sealed cover narrating the progress of the investigation in the case. Seemingly, the CB-CID have almost zeroed in on some persons. It may not be appropriate for this court to express anything beyond this, at this juncture, as there was every likelihood of the suspects getting scent and escaping from the clutches of law. Therefore, this court perused the report and the case diary file and returned the same to the investigating officer for safe custody, the judge added.
The judge said counsels for insurance companies submitted that they were collecting records from their branch offices about the bogus claims and that they will present the same before the expert body very soon. It was reported that in the city civil court, after recording the deposition, the same was hosted in the court website so as to enable the parties to download the same without awaiting a certified copy of the deposition. The MCOP Tribunals have also been connected to the Case Information System and that being so, the procedure followed in the city civil court can be adopted by the MCOP Tribunals to upload the deposition of witnesses in the CIS, thereby enabling the parties to peruse the same .