[One]

Originally Posted by RMN

At this point, I'm not sure what's going on and just wanted to check with everyone here if you are aware of what exactly my next steps should be?

Thanks a lot!

While am sure if the post below will help you at this stage, putting it here for reference for others who have asked questions on what to do immediately after an accident:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-...ml#post5194172

Wish you get out of this soon, all the best

[RMN]

Thanks a lot for the replies everyone. I couldn't reply since I was busy running behind this and other things.

I ended up talking to a lawyer friend of mine to figure out the whole situation and its basically what madrasilemon has mentioned below. This is good info and I suggested everyone be aware of this:

Originally Posted by madrasilemon

Hello Sir, From my limited knowledge of auditing Regional Offices of PSU Insurance Companies and more particularly, on the basis of reviewing their MACT Claim files, I would jot down the following.

There are two cases filed in case of Motor Vehicle Claim

1) FIR filed under provisions of Indian Penal Code by Police in Criminal Court. Following are provisions invoked under this case:

Section 279 IPC - Rash and Negligent driving
Section 337 IPC - hurting any person due to rash and negligent driving
Section 338 IPC - causing grevious hurt due to rash and negligent driving
Section 304A IPC - Causing death due to rash and negligent driving

In general, the punishment includes fine of few thousand rupees. Usually the accused will have to attend the court atleast three times before the judgement is passed. The normal practice is to plead guilty without any arguments as if one does not plead guilty, court may have to remand the person to judicial custody (usually 14 days) for further enquiries into the accident by police authorities.

Although imprisonement is also prescribed as a punishment, it is not generally awarded unless the driver was under the infuence of intoxicants or is proved to have committed a wilful accident or has been involved in a hit and run case.

Unless death occurs, the accused is not arrested. Even if arrested, the SHO of the Police have the power to allow table bail/station bail. This situtation is not applicable in your case as no death is involved.

2) Civil Case filed by the affected party or their dependants in Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT)

This case is filed for getting compensation from the insured/insurer. Notice is served to both insured and the insurer. The insurer has the right to invoke provisions of section 170(b) of Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 to attend the case in MACT in the absence of the insured if the insured failed to respond to notice from MACT. This is the practice in almost all the MACT claim cases. The insured just does not respond to the claim. However, before deciding to not to respond to the MACT notice, insured must ensure that Insurance Ceriticate is current and valid, and other papers such as RC, Permit & FC (In case of commercial vehicles) are valid. MACT cases are disposed off after long delay which may in some cases go beyond a decade.

Hope things are clear. Pardon my language, if some terms sound very formal.

Regarding the first point, we also did receive the notice regarding FIR on a postcard asking us to appear in the adalat for paying the fine. Honestly nothing was clear and there wasn't a way to clear any doubts either. Under the assumption that "insurance will take care of everything", we took this lightly and thanks to the lockdowns, we ended up not paying this.

The final date being yesterday for this and us finally hiring a lawyer, he explained that all we need to do is appear in person or just the lawyer on behalf of us, admit the guilt and pay the fine of 1250rs. We got this done yesterday.

Regarding the second point, we did receive the notice of the MACT case and once again under the assumption of "insurance will take care of everything", we ignored it. Turns out we and the insurer missed the court dates twice and now its scheduled for January. Our lawyer suggested that its best to always hire a lawyer and they will attend the court on the scheduled day and clear off all the legal formalities so that the its upon the insurance to take it forward.

Before putting up this thread, I tried searching a lot about these formalities and couldn't come across any reliable source/article. I hope this thread helps out someone in the future!

Thank you madrasilemon! This is very useful information but unfortunately I read it only today :(

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Contact your insurance provider and ask them if the matter has been settled from their end. Any court appearance will only be to admit guilt towards causing injury which will likely result in a fine less than 2000rs. I myself have been in a similar situation. I had to outline the accident once over the phone to my insurance service provider to confirm the claim, but never heard of license having to be suspended. If any of your friends is a lawyer, I'd ask them about it.

From what I understood, license suspension in case of injury or death was always a possibility but they made it mandatory recently. We have to appear in the RTO office in person on the hearing date assigned to us. A senior RTO officer ( I forgot his rank) will hear our case and decide on the length of the suspension. 15 days is the minimum and based on the situation, can go up to 6 months I believe.

Originally Posted by adisan

Sounds bad and troublesome that the injured files FIR against the other party even after they have helped the injured and paid for hospital charges.

What would be the correct course of action to pre-empt this?

We paid for the causality care and 2 days of room charges. While in causality, the XRay revealed a fracture and the operation cost was >1L. The lady dint have any medical insurance and she would have had to pay from her own pocket. So they started insisting we pay for it. Since the sum was high and I was unsure if she would still go ahead and file a case against us, I suggested its better she goes the legal route.

[mithun]

Originally Posted by RMN

From what I understood, license suspension in case of injury or death was always a possibility but they made it mandatory recently. We have to appear in the RTO office in person on the hearing date assigned to us. A senior RTO officer ( I forgot his rank) will hear our case and decide on the length of the suspension. 15 days is the minimum and based on the situation, can go up to 6 months I believe.

Please re-verify the license suspension clause.

Always contest the license suspension, if possible. These RTO guys are very biased and will be having a different set of rules for the same mistakes. An acquaintance of mine recently hit an old person and he went scot-free even though he was recommended for license suspension!

[Schneller]

I learnt this the hard way. If you get into such a situation, let the other person manage their own affairs. Let them take a photo of your car and whatever and just go away. Cops would not file an FIR on such an incident only. They would casually say “insurance claim karlo na” when you help the other person and leave your contact details, you make life easy for both the victim and the police to skim you even if it wasn’t your fault. Last time i was in such a situation, one activa suddenly tried to turn right from the left most lane and i ended up hitting him and that guy fell down. I made sure he was okay(/ish) pulled to side of road and everything. He asked me to pay for damage to his scooty and him (ironically this was his fault). I told him point blank I’m not paying anything and I’m leaving. Feel free to take a picture of my car. Never heard anything

P.S. - One time i got into a major accident with a 15 years old car and totalled it. Agreed to pay them another 50k on top of what their insurance would pay for total loss. Biggest mistake i ever made. They dragged it to court for 2 years initially upping the demand to 5.5 Lakh. When they saw we wouldn’t budge, we paid about 90k to get rid of them just for our peace. They would eventually go on to lose the case.

Be selfish when it comes to money. People are sitting to skim you.