Liability without fault and third-party risks under Motor Vehicles Act, 1988

A cyclist is hit on the Eastern Express Highway at night by a car that does not stop. No one saw the number plate. Another day a bus swerves on a wet road and injures three passengers; the driver says it was nobody’s fault. In ordinary tort law the victim must prove negligence, and in both these cases that looks hopeless. The Motor Vehicles Act answers by saying the victim should still be paid, and by forcing every vehicle on the road to carry insurance so that there is someone with money to pay. That is liability without fault and third-party risk.

In two minutes

Under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 a victim of a road accident gets fixed compensation without proving anyone’s fault (section 164: five lakh rupees for death, two lakh fifty thousand for grievous hurt), a hit-and-run victim gets compensation under section 161, and every motor vehicle used in a public place must be insured against third-party risk (section 146).

The rest of this chapter

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