If you have been injured in a road accident, or have lost a family member to one, you can file a motor accident compensation claim before a Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (MACT). The people who can claim are the injured victim, or, where the victim has died, their legal heirs and dependants. The amount is not a fixed figure. The Tribunal works it out from the victim's income, age, the nature of the injury, and the losses the family actually suffers.
Part of the civil litigation practice at S Jain & Attorneys, Bangalore.
This guide sets out, in plain English, who is entitled to claim, how the compensation is calculated, the time limit, the likely cost and timeline, and the mistakes that cut awards down. One idea runs through the whole subject: Indian courts treat motor accident compensation as beneficial legislation, to be read generously in favour of victims rather than narrowly to defeat genuine claims.
What law governs motor accident claims?
Motor accident compensation in India is governed by the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, as substantially amended by the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019. Almost anything written on this subject before 2022 is now unreliable, because the amendments to the compensation chapter were brought into force on 1 April 2022 and they renumbered provisions that practitioners had used for three decades. The provisions that matter to a victim are these.
- Section 166: the ordinary claim for compensation, founded on the fault or negligence of the driver or owner. There is no statutory ceiling. Under Section 168 the Tribunal awards what the Act calls "just" compensation.
- Section 164: a no-fault claim. The owner of the vehicle or the authorised insurer is liable to pay a sum of five lakh rupees in case of death and two and a half lakh rupees in case of grievous hurt. Section 164(2) expressly says the claimant is not required to plead or establish any wrongful act, neglect or default. This provision replaced the old Section 140 and Section 163A, both of which now stand omitted.
- Section 161: hit and run accidents, where the offending vehicle is never identified. A fixed sum of two lakh rupees for death and fifty thousand rupees for grievous hurt is payable under a Central Government scheme, or such higher amount as the Central Government prescribes.
- Section 162: the golden hour. Insurance companies carrying on general insurance business must provide for the treatment of road accident victims, including during the golden hour, and the Central Government is to make a scheme for cashless treatment. Section 2(12A) defines the golden hour as the hour following a traumatic injury during which there is the highest likelihood of preventing death by prompt medical care.
- Section 175: once a Claims Tribunal has been constituted for an area, no civil court can entertain the claim. You cannot bring an ordinary damages suit instead.
Key takeaway. Section 163A and Section 140 no longer exist. They were omitted with effect from 1 April 2022 and their work is now done by Section 164. If a website, a template petition or an adviser is still citing Section 163A at you, the material is out of date and so, probably, is the rest of the advice.
The criminal side of a rash or negligent driving case runs on a separate track. It now sits under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which replaced the Indian Penal Code, and is prosecuted under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Your compensation claim does not depend on a conviction, is not defeated by an acquittal, and does not have to wait for the criminal trial to finish.
The three compensation routes compared
| Route | What you must establish | What is payable |
|---|---|---|
| Section 166 (fault claim before the MACT) | Negligence of the driver or owner, and the extent of your loss | "Just compensation" with no statutory ceiling, built from income, age and dependency |
| Section 164 (no-fault) | Only the accident, the death or grievous hurt, and your standing to claim | Rs 5,00,000 for death; Rs 2,50,000 for grievous hurt |
| Section 161 (hit and run, vehicle untraced) | That the vehicle which caused the accident cannot be identified | Rs 2,00,000 for death; Rs 50,000 for grievous hurt, under the Central scheme |
These routes are not cumulative in the way families hope. The second proviso to Section 166(1) says that where a person accepts compensation under Section 164 through the settlement procedure in Section 149, the claim petition before the Tribunal lapses. Section 164(3) separately reduces the Section 164 amount by any compensation already paid under another law. Section 167 makes you choose between the Motor Vehicles Act and the workmen's compensation legislation for a workplace road death; you may claim under either but not under both.
Three provisions are what stop the routes from stacking on top of each other.
Proviso to Section 166(1)
Where a person accepts compensation under Section 164 through the settlement procedure in Section 149, the claim petition before the Tribunal lapses.
Section 164(3): set-off
The Section 164 amount is reduced by any compensation already paid under another law, so the two figures do not simply add together.
Section 167: you must elect
For a workplace road death you may claim under the Motor Vehicles Act or under the workmen's compensation legislation, but not under both.
Common mistake. Signing the insurer's early settlement because the family needs money this month. Under the proviso to Section 166(1), accepting compensation under Section 164 through the Section 149 route makes the claim petition lapse. A five lakh rupee cheque can close the door on an award many times that size. Have the offer read by an advocate before anyone signs.
Who can claim motor accident compensation?
Two situations arise, and they are calculated quite differently.
When the victim survives (injury cases)
The injured person files in their own name. The heads of claim are medical expenses actually incurred, loss of income during treatment and recovery, loss of future earning capacity where there is lasting disability, pain and suffering, loss of amenities, and the cost of attendant care, special diet, prosthetics, physiotherapy and transport. Section 166(5) is worth knowing: if the injured person later dies, the right to claim compensation for the injury survives to the legal representatives whether or not the death had any connection with the accident.
When the victim dies (fatal cases)
The legal representatives and dependants file. Indian courts read "legal representatives" broadly and do not confine the expression to those who would inherit under succession law. Those who commonly claim include:
- the surviving spouse;
- children, including minor children and, depending on proof of dependency, married children;
- parents, and in the case of an unmarried deceased, most often the mother;
- a dependent sibling, grandparent or other relative who can show actual dependency.
The claim is for the financial support the family would have received, plus the conventional heads described below. Where the heirs also need to collect the deceased's bank deposits, debts or securities, a succession certificate is a separate exercise and is not a precondition to the MACT claim.
| Who claims | Situation | Main heads of compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Injured victim | Survived with injury | Medical bills, lost income, future earning loss, pain and suffering, attendant care |
| Spouse / children / parents | Victim died | Loss of dependency, loss of consortium, loss of estate, funeral expenses |
| Owner of a damaged vehicle | Property loss | Repair or replacement cost, usually routed through the insurer |
How much compensation can you get?
For fatal claims, Tribunals across the country follow the method settled by the Supreme Court in Sarla Verma v. Delhi Transport Corporation, (2009) 6 SCC 121, as approved and refined by a Constitution Bench in National Insurance Company Ltd. v. Pranay Sethi, decided on 31 October 2017 and reported at (2017) 16 SCC 680. Four numbers do all the work: income, future prospects, the deduction for personal expenses, and the multiplier.
- Establish the income. Salary certificate, Form 16 and income tax returns for a salaried person; books, GST returns and bank statements for the self-employed. Pranay Sethi directs that where income is in the taxable range, actual salary means salary less tax.
- Add future prospects. The uplift is standardised by age and by the nature of the employment, so that Tribunals stop guessing.
- Deduct personal and living expenses. Following Sarla Verma, the deduction is one-third where there are two or three dependent family members, one-fourth where there are four to six, and one-fifth where there are more than six. For a bachelor, the usual deduction is one-half, and ordinarily only the mother is treated as a dependant.
- Apply the multiplier. The annual dependency figure is multiplied by an age-based multiplier to capitalise the future loss.
- Add the conventional heads. Loss of estate, loss of consortium and funeral expenses are fixed sums, revised upwards over time.
Future prospects: the standard uplift
| Age of the deceased | Permanent job | Self-employed or on a fixed salary |
|---|---|---|
| Below 40 years | Add 50 per cent | Add 40 per cent |
| 40 to 50 years | Add 30 per cent | Add 25 per cent |
| 50 to 60 years | Add 15 per cent | Add 10 per cent |
The multiplier
Pranay Sethi confirmed that the multiplier is taken from column 4 of the table in Sarla Verma. It starts at 18 for the age groups 15 to 20 and 21 to 25, and then reduces by one unit for every five years: 17 for 26 to 30, 16 for 31 to 35, 15 for 36 to 40, 14 for 41 to 45 and 13 for 46 to 50. After that it reduces by two units for every five years: 11 for 51 to 55, 9 for 56 to 60, 7 for 61 to 65 and 5 for 66 to 70. The age used is the age of the deceased, not the age of the claimant.
The conventional heads
Pranay Sethi fixed reasonable figures for loss of estate at Rs 15,000, loss of consortium at Rs 40,000 and funeral expenses at Rs 15,000, and directed that those amounts be enhanced at the rate of 10 per cent every three years. The judgment is from October 2017, so by 2026 two revision points have passed and Tribunals award more than the base figures. The arithmetic is applied slightly differently from bench to bench, so treat the printed figures as a floor rather than a ceiling. In Magma General Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Nanu Ram, decided by the Supreme Court on 18 September 2018, the Court held that consortium is a compendious term covering spousal consortium, parental consortium (a child's claim on the premature death of a parent) and filial consortium (a parent's claim on the death of a child). Children and parents therefore have a consortium claim of their own, not merely the widow.
A worked illustration
| Step | Working | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Annual income (salaried, aged 38, net of tax) | Proved by Form 16 and salary certificate | Rs 6,00,000 |
| Add future prospects at 50 per cent | Permanent job, below 40 | Rs 9,00,000 |
| Less personal expenses | Four dependants, so one-fourth | Rs 6,75,000 (annual dependency) |
| Apply multiplier | Age 38, so multiplier 15 | Rs 1,01,25,000 |
| Add conventional heads | Loss of estate, consortium, funeral expenses as revised | Plus the standardised sums |
| Interest | Section 171, from a date not earlier than the date of the claim | As directed by the Tribunal |
The numbers above illustrate the method, not your case. Change the age from 38 to 52 and the multiplier falls from 15 to 11 and the future prospects uplift from 50 per cent to 15 per cent, which nearly halves the award on the same salary. That is why proof of age and proof of income are worth more effort than any amount of argument.
Injury claims: what changes
In an injury claim there is no multiplicand based on dependency. The Tribunal instead asks what the disability has done to earning capacity. A 40 per cent physical disability certified by a medical board does not automatically mean a 40 per cent loss of income; the question is functional, and the loss to a manual worker who cannot lift is very different from the loss to a desk-based professional with the same certificate. Once a percentage loss of earning capacity is arrived at, the same future prospects uplift and the same age-based multiplier are applied to it. On top of that sit the proved medical expenses, the reasonably anticipated future medical and surgical costs, attendant care, conveyance, special diet, and non-pecuniary heads for pain, suffering and loss of amenities. Keep every bill, prescription and discharge summary, and get the disability certificate from the competent authority rather than from the treating doctor alone.
Where and how to file: the procedure step by step
Section 166(2) gives the claimant the choice of forum. The application may be made either to the Claims Tribunal having jurisdiction over the area where the accident occurred, or to the Tribunal within whose local limits the claimant resides or carries on business, or within whose limits the defendant resides. For a family that has moved home after a death, that choice can save years of travel.
- Treat the injury first, and make sure the hospital records how it happened. The medico-legal case record is often the strongest contemporaneous evidence of the accident.
- Ensure a police report exists. Note the registration number of the offending vehicle at the scene if you can, and get a copy of the first information report and, in fatal cases, the post-mortem report and inquest papers.
- Use Section 160 to get the vehicle particulars. The registering authority or the officer-in-charge of the police station must, on request and on payment of the prescribed fee, furnish the identification particulars of the vehicle, the name and address of the person who was using it, and the insurance details.
- Assemble income proof. Salary certificate, Form 16, income tax returns, GST returns, contracts, or, for a daily wage earner, whatever the local practice accepts as evidence of notional income.
- Assemble the personal documents. Age proof for the deceased or injured person, relationship proof for each claimant, the death certificate, the legal heir certificate where the Tribunal asks for it, and bank details for the award.
- File the claim petition before your chosen Tribunal, impleading the driver, the owner and the insurer. Leaving out the insurer is a routine and expensive error.
- Watch for the police report under Section 159. The investigating officer must prepare an accident information report during the investigation, within three months, and submit it to the Claims Tribunal. Section 166(4) requires the Tribunal to treat such a report as an application for compensation, which is a safety net worth knowing about.
- Deal with the insurer's offer under Section 149. The insurer must designate an officer on receiving information of the accident, and that officer may make a settlement offer before the Tribunal within thirty days. If you accept, the Tribunal records the settlement and payment must follow within thirty days. If you reject, the Tribunal fixes a date and decides the claim on merits.
- Lead evidence. The claimant's affidavit, the eyewitness or investigating officer, the treating doctor or the disability board, the employer on income, and documentary proof of expenses.
- Receive the award under Section 168, with simple interest under Section 171 from a date not earlier than the date of the claim, and apportionment among the claimants.
- Enforce it if necessary. Under Section 174 the Tribunal can issue a certificate to the Collector and the amount is recovered as an arrear of land revenue.
Is there a time limit to file?
Yes, and this is the single most dangerous change in the current law. Section 166(3), inserted by the 2019 Amendment with effect from 1 April 2022, says that no application for compensation shall be entertained unless it is made within six months of the occurrence of the accident. Between 1994 and 2022 there was no limitation period at all for a motor accident claim, which is why a great deal of older material tells readers, quite wrongly, that they can file at any time.
Deadline warning. Six months from the date of the accident, under Section 166(3). The sub-section contains no express power to condone delay. Do not wait for the criminal case, the final discharge summary, the disability certificate or the insurer's reply. File the petition and produce the rest of the material afterwards.
What it costs and how long it takes
These are indicative ranges for a straightforward claim and will vary by State, city and complexity.
- Court fee. A MACT petition is not charged ad valorem court fee in the way a money suit is. The fee is prescribed by State rules made under Section 176 and is generally nominal. Confirm the current figure at the Tribunal's filing counter, because it differs from State to State.
- Advocate's fee. Commonly Rs 15,000 to Rs 75,000 for an uncomplicated claim, and higher where negligence is genuinely contested, where the claim is large, or where the insurer runs a policy defence. Some advocates work on a staged fee and some on a percentage of the award; agree the basis in writing at the start.
- Documents and medical evidence. Certified copies, medical records, disability board fees and expert evidence typically add a few thousand rupees.
- Timeline. A claim that settles through the Section 149 route or through Lok Adalat can conclude in a few months. A contested fatal claim commonly takes between one and three years to award, and an appeal to the High Court can add one to three years more.
Appeals against the award
Section 173 gives either side ninety days from the date of the award to appeal to the High Court, and the High Court may condone delay if satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause. There are two filters. First, a person who is required to pay under the award cannot have the appeal entertained unless he deposits twenty-five thousand rupees or fifty per cent of the amount awarded, whichever is less. Second, under Section 173(2) no appeal lies at all where the amount in dispute in the appeal is less than one lakh rupees.
Common reasons claims are reduced or rejected
- Filing late. Beyond the six months in Section 166(3), with nothing on record to explain it.
- Contributory negligence. Riding without a helmet, a pillion of three, wrong-side driving or an unlit vehicle at night will usually produce a proportionate reduction.
- Income asserted but not proved. Tribunals fall back on notional income where documents are missing, and the drop is severe. A single Form 16 can be worth several lakhs.
- Policy defences. No valid driving licence, a licence for the wrong class of vehicle, a goods vehicle carrying passengers, no permit, or driving under the influence. These usually do not defeat the victim, but they shift the burden, and the Tribunal may direct the insurer to pay and then recover from the owner.
- Suing the wrong people. Impleading only the driver, or omitting the insurer, delays everything.
- Double recovery. Section 167 requires an election between this Act and the workmen's compensation route; Section 164(3) sets off compensation received under other law.
- Accepting an early settlement under Section 164 through the Section 149 procedure, which makes the pending claim petition lapse.
If you need help pursuing or defending a claim before the Tribunal, our civil litigation and dispute representation practice explains how we approach these matters. You can read the full bare text of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 on the Government of India's official portal, India Code.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to prove the driver was negligent?
For a fault-based claim under Section 166 you must show negligence, though Tribunals apply a practical, victim-friendly standard rather than the strictness of a criminal trial. Under Section 164 you do not: sub-section (2) says the claimant is not required to plead or establish any wrongful act, neglect or default.
Can I claim if I was a pedestrian or a passenger?
Yes. Pedestrians, cyclists, passengers, pillion riders and even occupants of the offending vehicle can claim, subject to the terms of the policy. Being a non-driver does not bar you.
Who actually pays the compensation?
Usually the insurer of the offending vehicle, because third-party insurance is compulsory under Section 146. If the vehicle was uninsured, the owner and driver are personally liable, and the award can be recovered from them under Section 174 as an arrear of land revenue.
What if the offending vehicle was never traced?
Section 161 provides a fixed sum of Rs 2,00,000 for death and Rs 50,000 for grievous hurt in hit and run cases, payable under a Central Government scheme, or such higher amount as is prescribed. Section 163 allows a refund adjustment if compensation is later obtained from the vehicle owner.
Does a pending criminal case stop my compensation claim?
No. The claim before the Tribunal is independent of the prosecution under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and proceeds in parallel. An acquittal in the criminal case does not by itself defeat the claim, because the standard of proof is different.
Can I file where I live rather than where the accident happened?
Yes. Section 166(2) gives the claimant the option of the Tribunal for the place of the accident, the place where the claimant resides or carries on business, or the place where the defendant resides.
Is there any help with the hospital bill in the first hours?
Section 162 requires general insurers to provide for the treatment of road accident victims including during the golden hour, and requires the Central Government to frame a cashless treatment scheme. Ask the hospital and the insurer about the scheme in force when the accident occurs.
How long does a MACT claim take?
It varies widely. A settled or uncontested claim can finish in months; a contested fatal claim commonly runs one to three years, depending on the Tribunal's workload, whether negligence is disputed, and how complete your documents were on day one.
Can the compensation amount be challenged?
Yes. Either side can appeal to the High Court under Section 173 within ninety days. The paying party must first deposit Rs 25,000 or half the award, whichever is less, and no appeal lies where the amount in dispute is under Rs 1,00,000.
Can I go to the civil court instead of the Tribunal?
No. Section 175 bars the jurisdiction of civil courts over any question relating to a claim for compensation that the Tribunal for that area can decide.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws change and every situation is different; please consult a qualified advocate about your specific matter.
