ITEM NO.3               COURT NO.6               SECTION X

S U P R E M E  C O U R T  O F  I N D I A

RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Writ Petition(s)(Civil)  No(s).  534/2020

BAJAJ ALLIANZ GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY

PRIVATE LTD.                                      Petitioner(s)

VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & ORS.                              Respondent(s)

([FOR DIRECTIONS]MR. N. VIJAYARAGHAVAN, A.C.

IA No. 52588/2020 – EX-PARTE AD-INTERIM RELIEF

IA No. 36373/2022 – INTERVENTION APPLICATION)

Date : 31-03-2022 This matter was called on for hearing today.

CORAM :

HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJAY KISHAN KAUL

HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE M.M. SUNDRESH

Mr. N. Vijayaraghavan, AC

Mr. Vipin Nair, AOR

For Petitioner(s)	Mr. Siddharth, AOR Mr. Amit Kumar Agrawal, Adv.
For Respondent(s)	Mr. Jayant K. Sud, Ld. ASG Ms. Garima Prasad, Sr. Adv./AAG Mr. Navanjay Mahapatra, Adv. Mr. Bhuvan Mishra, Adv. Mr. Manish, Adv. Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR Mr. Sughosh Subramanyam, Adv. Ms. Priyadarshni Priya, Adv. Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR Mr. B.V. Balram Das, AOR Mr. Raj Bahadur, AOR Mr. A.K. Sharma, AOR

Mr. Jayant K. Sud, Ld. ASG Ms. Garima Prasad, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makkar, AOR Mr. Navanjay Mahapatra, Adv.

Ms. Bhuvan Mishra, Adv.

Mr. Sughosh Subramanyam, Adv.

Ms. Priyadarshni Priya, Adv.

Mr. Jayant Sud, Ld. ASG Mr. Randeep Sachdeva, Adv.

Mr. Navanjay Mahapatra, Adv.

Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, Adv.

Mr. Kartik J., Adv.

Mr.Jayant K Sud, Ld. ASG

Ms.  Archana Pathak Dave, AOR Ms. Vanya Gupta, Adv.

Mr. Avnish Dave, Adv.

Mr. Parmod Kumar Vishnoi, Adv.

Mr. Harish Pandey, AOR Ms. Sanskriti Pathak, Adv.

Mr. G.S. Makker, AOR

Mr. Atul Nanda, Sr. Adv.

Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, AOR Ms. Vanya Gupta, Adv.

Mr. Avnish Dave, Adv.

Mr. Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, AOR Mr. Polanki Gowtham, Adv.

Mr. Shaik Mohamad Haneef, Adv.

Mr. T. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, Adv.

Mr. K.V. Girish Chowdary, Adv.

Ms. Rajeswari Mukherjee, Adv.

Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR

Mr. Arjun Garg, AOR Mr. Aakash Nandolia, Adv.

Ms. Sagun Srivastava, Adv.

Mr. Sourav Roy, Adv/ DAG (Chhattisgarh) Mr. Mahesh Kumar, Adv.

Mr. Prabudh Singh, Adv.

Ms. Devika Khanna, Adv.

Mrs. V.D. Khanna, Adv.

M/s Vmz Chambers, AOR

Mr. Ravindra A. Lokhande, Adv.

Dr. Abhishek Atrey, AOR Nring Chamwibo Zeliang, Adv.

Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, AOR

Dr. Monika Gusain, AOR Mr. Hari Om Yaduvanshi, Adv.

Ms. S. Harini, Adv.

Ms. Ranjeeta Rohatgi, AOR

Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR Ms. Eliza Bar, Adv.

Mr. Raj Kamal, AOR

Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR

Mr. G. Prakash, AOR

Mr. Pashupathi Nath Razdan, AOR Mr. Mirza Kayesh Begg, Adv.

Mr. Prakhar Srivastav, Adv.

Ms. Sneh Bairwa, Adv.

Mr. Rahul Chitnis, Adv.

Mr. Sachin Patil, AOR Mr. Aaditya A. Pande, Adv.

Mr. Geo Joseph, Adv.

Ms. Shwetal Shepal, Adv.

Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Adv.

Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR Mr. Upendra Mishra, Adv.

Mr. K.V. Kharlyngdoh, Adv.

Ms. T. K. Nayak, Adv.

Mr. Siddhesh Kotwal, Adv.

Ms. Ana Upadhyay, Adv.

Ms. Manya Hasija, Adv.

Mr. Akash Singh, Adv.

Mr. Nirnimesh Dubey, Adv.

Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv.

Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv.

Mr. Som Raj Choudhury, AOR Ms. Shrutee Aradhana, Adv.

Mr. Vivek Kohli, Adv. General

Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR Ms. Yeshi Rinchhen, Adv.

Mr. Abhinav Mishra, Adv.

Ms. Nishi Sangtani, Adv.

Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR Mr. Abhinav Mishra, Adv.

Ms. Nishi Sangtani, Adv.

Dr. Joseph Aristotle S., AOR Ms. Nupur Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Shobhit Dwivedi, Adv.

Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Mahara, Adv.

Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR Ms. Sweena Nair, Adv.

Mr. P. Mohith Rao, Adv.

Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Kabir Shankar Bose, Adv.

Mr. Ishaan Borthakur, Adv.

Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Ishaan Borthakur, Adv.

Mr. Pradeep Misra, AOR Mr. Suraj Singh, Adv.

Mr. Yashsvi Virendra, Adv.

Mr. Soumitra G. Chaudhuri, Adv.

Mr. Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, AOR

Ms. G. Indira, AOR

Mr. Chirag M. Shroff, AOR Mr. Amandeep Mehta, Adv.

Mr. Aravindh S., AOR Ms. C. Rubavathi, Adv.

Mr. Ashish Tiwari , AOR

Mr. Vishal Meghwal, Adv.

Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR

Ms. Kavita Jha, AOR Mr. Aditeya Bali, Adv.

Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, Adv.

Ms. Anu K. Joy, Adv.

Mr. Alim Anvar, Adv.

 

Intervener Mr. Purvish Jitendra Malkan, AOR Ms. Dharita Purvish Malkan, Adv.

Ms. Deepa Gorasia, Adv.

Mr. Alok Kumar, Adv.

Ms. Nandini Chhabra,Adv.

Ms. Beena Goyal, Adv.

Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Akhileshwar Jha, Adv.

Ms. Deepati Chopra, Adv.

Dr.(Mrs.)Vipin Gupta, AOR

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following

O R D E R

 IA No. 36373/2022 – INTERVENTION

The concerns addressed must be shared with the learned ASG.  The application stands disposed of.

We have perused the report dated 28.03.2022 by the learned Additional Solicitor General and seen the demonstration put forth by Mr. A. Mohan of the NIC and thus commend the work which has been done both on the technical side and by the Government and the insurance companies assisted by their respective counsels.

It is stated in the report that GIC has taken steps for development of a mobile App from a private developer and a web-based portal had already been developed under the aegis of the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The salient features of the e-Portal, as it works are:

1. For the digitalization of DAR, the portal wouldsubsequently emerge as “e-DAR” which would have integration of all the forms, including the

‘Comprehensive Information Form’ and Integrated

Road Accident Database (iRAD).  From iRAD applications more than 90% of the datasets are pushed directly to the e-DAR and the respective stakeholders like Police, Road Authorities, Hospitals etc. are required to enter very minimal information for the E-DAR forms.   Thus, e-DAR will be an extension and e-version of iRAD.

1. There will be multiple checks in the e-DAR portal to restrict fake claims linking the check with FIR No., vehicles involved in the accident, the date of accident and the portal would be interlinked with other Government portals i.e, Sarthi and Vaahan giving access to information with respect to  licence of the drivers as well as the registration of the vehicle.

• The total of 19 forms are provided for various stakeholders and a PAN India Single ‘Comprehensive Information Form’ generated electronically will provide all the relevant information.

1. The Geo tagging of exact accident spot along with site map will be done, which would also notify the Investigating Officer about his distance from the spot of the incidence in the event the portal is accessed from any other location and in case the Investigating Officer for some reason does not reach the spot, the Geo tagging feature will also reflect the same.
2. The upholding of documents i.e, photos; video of accident spot; damaged vehicles, injured victims, eye-witnesses etc. would be uploaded immediately in the absence of internet facility on the mobile phone.
3. The analysis of output will be done through Monitoring & Reporting Dashboard & Analytics Dashboard for easy understanding and accordingly forecasting & Decision Making by Apex Authorities for formulation of new polices and strategies. vi) Apart from the state police, an engineer from the Public Works Department or the local body will receive an alert on his mobile device and the concerned official will then visit the accident site, to examine it, and feed the required details, such as the road design. Hotspots for accidents would also be identified so as to obtain solutions to avoid accidents at these hotspots.

The report suggests that data with respect to motor accidents for 24 States is already been uploaded and the GIC appear to suggest that there may not be a requirement of a mobile application in view of the web portal being developed and used. Some more time is requested to work out the remaining aspects.

There is a discussion  which is ongoing with

the NIC on various aspects.

One of the issues which we have flagged is of the use of AI in this process, something  which we are informed is already a work in progress of the AI Committee and the learned ASG  states that he has requested the concerned Registrar to give an update on the same which would naturally be done.

We did put to learned counsels that apart from taking care of the future and ensuring that matters, instead of going  to the Courts,

can instead be resolved      inter se

the   parties, so that they are able to see the immediate benefits and more so, in the context of legal principles having been set down  is something which needs to be explored further.  A large part of the task is now a mathematical formulation and the variables are only the income of the

deceased/affected and the factum of the accident.

We are also flagging the issue of pending matters before the Courts and the need for mediation for the same.  We did put to the learned counsel for the insurance companies that they are best suited to see as to which of their cases are amenable to immediate settlements and after making the list may inform the respective High Courts which can then hold lok adalats/mediations to resolve at least those cases as in number of States the MACT cases are the highest single category of pendency.

Learned ASG states that on the other pending issues he will come back with a report as to what directions does he seek for providing an impetus to the path on which all of us have embarked.

The intervening summer recess is giving an excess time period to the parties to ensure compliances and not to put the matter in abeyance.

We make it clear that to obtain requisite data from the High Courts or otherwise, the learned ASG is free to obtain the same from the Courts concerned.

Mr. N. Vijayaraghavan, learned Amicus Curiae states that introduction of Chapter 11 from tomorrow will seamlessly integrate a lot of the aspects which have been flagged.

At request list on 21.07.2022.

Learned counsels for the parties who wish to join electronically for the next date would be facilitated.

 

[CHARANJEET KAUR]                       [POONAM VAID]

ASTT. REGISTRAR-cum-PS             COURT MASTER (NSH)