Currently, the Motor Vehicle Bill proposes compensation of INR 25,000 to hit-and-run victim n that is quite low as the Supreme Court said today. Altogether, it proposed the hike of amount to INR 2 lakhs. A bill has been proposed and awaits discussing in the Parliament.
In April 2017, the Lok Sabha passed the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016 which was later sent to the Rajya Sabha. The Rajya Sabha presented its report on amendment bill on December 22, 2017.
However, today, the Supreme Court labelled this amount of compensation at Rs 25,000 as ‘abysmally low’ and proposed an increase to INR 2 lakhs. The Bill has been put for discussion in the Lok Sabha.
The issue of low hit-and-run victim compensation amount along with the issue of potholed roads across Delhi and Mumbai were raised by the bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta. The Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, who was there for the Centre, said that the Bill was pending in the Parliament.
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For potholed road issue across Delhi and Mumbai, the court questioned effective body for repairing of these potholes especially those are factors for major accidents. The appointed committee for on road safety has collected all the data from different states and the next step will be the fundraising for road repair as the Court ruled.
The amicus has brought a large number of roads accidents in India in the light. As go by the previous records, the death due to road accidents was 1.60 lakhs (approx) including 20,000 death cases in hit-and-run incidents. Earlier, a provision for extended third-party insurance for a period of 3 years was suggested by the Center that will ensure a large number vehicles on road.