Motor Accident Compensation claims: Supreme Court to hear a plea challenging the constitutional validity of Section 166(3) of MV Act

The Supreme Court (SC) of India agreed to hear a plea challenging the constitutional validity of Section 166 (3), which was added through the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act (MV Act), 2019. The bench constituting Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Prasanna Bhalachandra Varale issued notice on the petition, on April 01, 2024, returnable within 8 weeks. As per Section 166(3), “No application for compensation shall be entertained unless it is made within six months of the occurrence of the accident.” The petition stated that before the 2019 amendment, there was no fixed limit for filing the claims application by injured victims, their family members, or legal heirs. It added, “The aforementioned new clause introduced by the said amendment, which became effective from 01.04.2022 according to the Gazette Notification, has had a significant impact on road victims, altering the legal landscape and potentially influencing their rights and entitlements in considerable ways.” 

The plea also stated, “The legislative intent is to remove the hardship faced by the road victims. But when the legislatures after more than decades again introduce harsh legislation relating to filing of claim cases by road victims by curtailing their valuable and substantive right as was prevailing before, such harsh legislation be declared to be ultra-virus and opposed to the Constitutional guarantee of the road victims.” It also added, “The objection and reason behind such amendment is completely silent in the fact and circumstances of the present case, which is one of the most relevant aspect before enacting any new statutory provision or any amendment to the existing provision of the Statute. Hence, this present Writ Petition is in order to protect the interest of the road users and accident victims suffered in view of Motor vehicles in public place.” Therefore, the SC bench agreed to hear the matter and issued notice in a petition against the six-month limitation to file motor accident compensation claims.