SC to examine plea on relief for accident victims

NEW DELHI: Who is liable to compensate a road accident victim — the registered owner of the vehicle or the one who buys it but does not own it on paper?

The Supreme Court faced this question last week when a man approached it with a request to absolve him of the financial liability the Punjab and Haryana high court had imposed on him because his car was involved in an accident.

He said since the car was not transferred in his name, though he purchased it and was driving at the time of the incident, he was under no obligation to pay. Citing the existing law, petitioner Naveen Kumar said the registered owner should bear the expenditure.

A bench headed by Justice SA Bobde agreed to examine the issue after Kumar’s counsel Rishi Malhotra read out the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act (MV) in support of his client’s case.

The MV Act makes the ‘registered’ and not the ‘real owner’ accountable. He said the HC erred in directing Kumar to pay `5.23 lakh to the family of a person who was killed after being hit by his car.

A ruling on the issue may bring clarity to the MV Act that is silent on fixing responsibility on who shall get the ownership transferred in the new owner’s name — the buyer or the seller.