Court slams DTC, insurance firm for avoiding responsibility

A court here has slammed the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and an insurance firm for trying to avoid responsibility and awarded compensation of over Rs.17 lakh to the kin of a teenager who died in a road accident due to the negligent driving of a bus driver.

Madhu Jain, presiding officer of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, awarded Rs.17,62,924 to the kin of Mohd. Sahil but observed that though all have sympathy for the parents who lost their only son, no one was inclined to help them.

"Despite numerous guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court and our (Delhi) High Court, again and again insurance companies or the government transport authorities rake up this issue. Nobody sees the condition of the old parents who lost their only son," the judge said in the March 2 order which was released to the media on Wednesday.

"DTC officials in connivance with its driver are passing the buck on the insurance company, and the insurance company is trying to avoid its responsibility saying that the insured has violated the terms and conditions of the insurance policy," the court said.

Seventeen-years-old Sahil was hit by a DTC bus while driving his scooter in south Delhi on November 14, 2013. He was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

His family sought compensation from the DTC, its driver Anil Kumar and insurance company United India Insurance, with which the offending vehicle was insured.

The insurance firm told the court that the bus driver's licence was found to be fake and it was in violation of the terms and conditions of the policy.

A DTC official said the driver's licence was found to be fake.

"It seems that now it's only a plea which has been taken by officials of the DTC to escape their liability that the driving licence was later on found fake when they knew all along about the fakeness of the driving licence prior to the accident, hence adverse inference is to be drawn against the driver and the owner," the court said.