Motor Accident Claims Tribunals: Constitution, Procedure and the DAR

The Claims Tribunal is the Act's own court, created so that accident compensation would not die in civil suit queues. Section 165 constitutes it, sections 168 and 169 give it a summary procedure with a civil court's powers, and the modern reform runs through the Detailed Accident Report: the police investigation itself, filed on a timeline and treated as the claim, with the Supreme Court's Gohar Mohammed directions enforcing the system nationwide.

1. Constitution and jurisdiction: section 165

• Constitution: State Governments constitute Motor Accidents Claims Tribunals for specified areas; a member must be, or have been, a District Judge or be qualified for appointment as a High Court judge, the judicial character deliberate.
• Jurisdiction: claims for compensation arising out of the use of motor vehicles causing death or bodily injury or damage to third party property.
• The use test is broad: loading, alighting, parked vehicles and explosions have all been held within use, keeping the victim inside the special forum.
• Civil court barred: where a Claims Tribunal has jurisdiction, no civil court may entertain the question, the exclusivity that gives the forum its point.

Figure 1: The tribunal at a glance

2. Procedure and powers: sections 168 and 169

• Summary and inquisitorial in spirit: the tribunal follows the summary procedure the rules prescribe, holds an inquiry rather than a trial in form, and is not bound by the strict rules of pleading; its mandate under section 168 is to determine just compensation.
• A civil court's powers for summoning witnesses, discovery and evidence on oath; awards specify the amounts, the persons entitled and the apportionment among them.
• Payment discipline: amounts are deposited and disbursed as the tribunal directs, with protective practices, fixed deposits for minors and vulnerable claimants, built by case law.
• Interest follows under section 171 and compensatory costs for false or vexatious claims under section 172, and the award is executable; section 174 recovers unpaid amounts as arrears of land revenue.

3. The DAR system and Gohar Mohammed

Figure 2: The report driven claim

• The rules' timeline: the amended Central rules oblige the police to file a First Accident Report within forty eight hours, follow with an interim report, and complete a Detailed Accident Report, the full investigation with documents on licence, permit, fitness and insurance, within about three months, uploaded and forwarded to the tribunal.
• The DAR as claim: the tribunal registers and treats the DAR as an application for compensation, so the victim's case begins without the victim having to build it.
• Gohar Mohammed v U.P. SRTC (2022): the Supreme Court directed nationwide implementation, police registration and reporting duties, nodal officers for insurers, time bound offers or contests, and coordination among police, tribunals and insurers, converting the rules' paper scheme into enforced practice.
• The effect: liability evidence arrives collected, settlement is front loaded, and the old pattern of victims chasing documents from indifferent agencies inverts.

Figure 3: Who owes what under the DAR regime

4. Quick Revision

1. Keep accident claims out of the civil court.
2. Read use widely to keep victims in the forum.
3. Build the award on the DAR's record.
4. Hold police and insurers to their timelines.
5. Protect the award at the disbursement stage.

5. Frequently Asked Questions

Can a claim be filed where the claimant resides, or only where the accident happened?

The claimant has the choice the section gives. The application may be made, at the claimant's option, to the tribunal having jurisdiction over the area where the accident occurred, where the claimant resides or carries on business, or where the defendant resides, a venue liberality designed for migrant victims hurt far from home. The DAR system layers onto this: the investigating police file the report with the tribunal of the accident's district, and where the claimant proceeds at home the records travel. Tribunals have handled the overlap pragmatically, transfer applications and coordinated registries smoothing it, and the e filing of DARs has made the venue choice cheaper to exercise. The option belongs to the claimant; defendants cannot insist on the accident forum.

Is the tribunal bound by the criminal case's outcome on negligence?

No. The claim inquiry and the criminal prosecution run on different standards and serve different ends, so an acquittal of the driver does not bind the tribunal, which decides negligence on the preponderance of probabilities from the materials before it, the DAR, the site evidence and the witnesses; conversely a conviction is a weighty piece of evidence but the tribunal still assesses the civil consequences itself. The charge sheet and FIR are admissible materials in the summary inquiry even while the trial is pending, and tribunals need not await the criminal verdict, a waiting practice the courts have discouraged because it starves claimants. The two proceedings share facts, not findings, and an answer that keeps the standards distinct earns its marks.

What changed in practice after the DAR directions?

The burden of proof logistics moved off the victim. Before the system, a widow's lawyer assembled the FIR, the mechanical inspection, the driver's licence particulars, the permit and fitness and the policy, each from a different office; under the rules as enforced, the investigating officer compiles exactly that file on a timetable, the insurer's nodal officer receives it, and the tribunal opens a claim on it without a petition. Settlement behaviour shifted with the information: insurers can price liability early and offers come at the registration stage, while contested cases reach evidence with the record already built. Delay has fallen where the system is worked, and the remaining friction, uneven police compliance and understaffed tribunals, is administrative rather than structural, which is why the monitoring continues.

6. Related Topics and Provisions

• The claim under section 166
• Just compensation and the multiplier method
• No fault liability: section 164
• Appeals, interest and recovery of awards
• Compulsory insurance of motor vehicles
• Negligence in motor accident claims