P&H High Court Expresses Distress Over Motor Accident Insurance Claims Pending Since 2006-07, Directs Registry To Notify Companies

Expressing "distress" over the pendency of Motor Accident Claim Tribunal (MACT) cases in the High Court, the Punjab & Haryana High Court has said that in case any panel counsel of the Insurance Companies fails to appear, without seeking adjournment, the Court will ask other available counsel for the Company to assist the Court.

Justice Sudeepti Sharma said, "This Court is distressed to note that, these cases, dating back to year 2006-07 and pertaining to Motor Vehicles Accident, have faced considerable delay(s). The expeditious adjudication of these cases is imperative. However, it has often come to the Court's notice that counsel for Insurance Companies fail to appear despite specific orders from the Court."

Previously, in certain cases, the Court had made it clear that no adjournment would be granted in old cases, the judge added.

"In light of these exceptional circumstances, this Court finds it necessary to inform all the Insurance Companies and their empanelled counsels appearing before this Court that in the event any of their engaged counsel fails to appear, the Court will request assistance from the counsel empanelled with the Insurance Companies, who are usually present in the Court to assist in the matter. Thereafter, the case would be adjudicated on its merits, after perusing the record," said the Court.

The Court thus directed the Insurance Companies to disburse the current scheduled fees to the counsel engaged by the Court for the respective cases.

The development came after the Court found that in an old insurance claim matter from 2007, no one was present on behalf of the Insurance Company.

In light of the above, the Court directed the Registry to forward copies of this order to notify all insurance companies about pending MACT cases.

Title: DALEL AND ANOTHER V/S KARTAR SINGH AND OTHERS

Mr. Devender Kumar, Advocate for the appellants.

Click here to read/download the order