On July 3, 2021, Sh. Surinder S. Rathi, Additional District & Sessions Judge, Delhi gave a presentation on the FastDAR Scheme.
Sh. Surinder S. Rathi, who headed the Committee which formulated the FastDAR Scheme gave a presentation on the Scheme. DAR stands for Detailed Accident Report. He began his presentation by giving an overview of road accidents in India. He reminded us of the sad and problematic scenario of road safety and motor accidents in the country.
FastDAR comes as a relief by providing quick compensation to the bereaved families. He then took us through the law governing motor accident a claims, the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and its key chapters. Furthermore,her took us through the time frame within which the Motor Accident claims are resolved. It is as stated below:
Then he took us through the development of the Law on MACT – it was introduced by Hon’ble Mr. Justice J.R. Midha, Delhi High Court in the case of Rajesh Tyagi v. Jaibir Singh FAO No. 842/2003 envisaged a “Claim Tribunal Agreed Procedure” with Detailed Accident Report Format in 2009 which is popularly known as DAR. It provided for disposal of Claims in 90-120 days. The Hon’ble Delhi High Court through its judgement dated 8th Jan 2021, formulated a MACT Project Implementation Committee The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Jaiprakash v. National Insurance Co, on 13.05.2016 issued a direction that the DAR regime shall be implemented thorough out the country.
Subsequently, he took us through the developments in Claims Tribunal Agreed Procedure and its timeline This resulted in the establishment of FastDAR – SOP which was devised with the help of all duty holders with the vision to settle, award and disburse claims in select fatal accident cases within 10 days. The prerequisite to this is fulfillment of 5 conditions for inclusion of a claim under FastDAR Pilot Project and these are:
- Accident occurred due to the rash and negligent driving of the offending vehicle.
- Driver of the offending vehicle is holding a valid driving license.
- Offending vehicle is validly insured at the time of the accident.
- Commercial vehicle, there is valid permit and fitness certificate.
- No violation of the Insurance policy such as drunken driving or the vehicle being driven by a minor.
The stakeholders involved in the settlement of these claims are-
- Police,
- General Insurance Company,
- Insurance companies,
- Medical authorities,
- Transport authorities,
- Legal services authority,
- MACT Tribunal and
- Claimants or legal heirs.
The SOP lays down a maximum period of 10 days for amicable resolution of the claim in select fatal accident cases and disbursal of the compensation amount to the family of the deceased. The 10 days’ timeline shall be divided between Police, Insurance companies and Tribunal in the ratio 5:3:2 days, commencing from the day of the occurrence of the fatal accident.
Further, each of the duty/stakeholder is assigned with a specific task that they are required to perform when an accident takes place. The First case of FastDAR Pilot Project was settled in record 10 days of the fatal accident. He explained that this FastDAR Scheme for compensation claims of road accident deaths within 10 days of the accident was launched as a Pilot Project on 01st May, 2021.
On the very first day of the Pilot Project i.e. 01st May, 2021, a road accident was reported at 03:45 AM at Vasant Vihar, Police Picket in which a Honda CRV car rammed into police barricade and hit a police constable, Munshi Lal which resulted in fatal injuries. The police registered FIR No. 78/21 at P.S. Vasant Vihar. This case was brought to the notice of the Fast Track Committee on 04th May, 2021.
The Committee took up the matter with the Investigating Officer and provided the FastDAR Format to the Investigating Officer. IO verified the driving license as well as Insurance policy and filed the FastDAR before the Claims Tribunal on 08th May, 2021. The Honda CRV car was insured with Bajaj Allianz GIC Limited. The Insurance Company appeared before the Committee on 06th May, 2021. The Insurance Company was satisfied with respect to the valid driving license, valid insurance policy as well as the negligence of the offending vehicle. The family of the deceased submitted the relevant information/documents relating to the age, occupation and income of the deceased and particulars of his family members.
The Insurance Company verified the documents relating to age, occupation and income of the deceased and offered fair compensation of Rs.32 lakh which was accepted by the family of the deceased and their statement was recorded. On 10th May, 2021, the Claims Tribunal held the sitting of the Special Lok Adalat to pass an award for Rs.32 lakh in favour of the claimants.
Mr. Rathi, who has also served as Registrar with Supreme Court of India and Delhi High Court apart from serving as Member of eCommittee and AI Committee of Supreme Court also shared the benefits of eDAR National Portal being developed by Ministry of Home Affairs with the help of National Informatics Centre, NIC. eDAR Pilot is being built on the sidelines of CCTNS, Crime and Criminal Tracking Network of Police.
As and when a FIR is registered in any of the around 16,500 Police Stations in the Country under Section 304A IPC or Section 338 IPC or Section 337 IPC, a eDAR format will be generated in the National Portal which shall have the facility of pre-filled data from FIR. With the help of APIs (Application Program Interface) tools it will be connected with National Database of Vehicles ie VAAHAN, Driving Licenses ie SAARTHI, Database of Insurance Policies under IRDA from IIBI and like. It will also be sharing data with MoRTH's IRAD, Indian Road Accident Database.
Once put into production it will have the capacity to reduce the time taken in verification of documents drastically. Broadly its benefits are:
- One data one entry,
- Usage of AI tools,
- Saves time and resources,
- Date verficiation with Vaahan, Saarthi, IIBI,
- Accident site recording &
- Timely disposal of Claims.
The other panellists of the event were Hon'ble Mr. Justice RV Raveendran, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India, Hon'ble Mr. Justice J. R. Midha, Judge, Delhi High Court, Sh. Atul Sahai, Chairman, GI Council CMD, New India Assurance Co. Ltd. & Chairman GIPSA, Sh. M. N. Sarma, Secretary General, GI Council, Sh. Tapan Singhel, MD & CEO, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Chairman, CII National Committee on Insurance and Pensions, , Mrs. TL Alamelu, Member (Non-Life) IRDA, Dr. Patanjali Dev Nayar, Regional Advisor, Asia-Pacific, WHO, Sh. Sanjay Singh, Spl. Commissioner, Delhi Police, Sh. Kanwal Jeet Arora, Member Secretary, DSLSA and Sh. Mangesh Gandhi, Head Claims Legal, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company
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