JUDGMENT

1. In Concord of India Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Nirmala Devi, (1979) 4 SCC 365, Justice Krishna Iyer observed as back as in the year 1979 that an explosive escalation of automobile accidents accounts for more deaths than the most deadly diseases which has become a lethal phenomenon on Indian roads everywhere. Justice Krishna Iyer further observed that automatic reporting of the accident by the police in a statutory pro-forma signed by the claimants to the Claims Tribunal would banish the legal delays in this compassionate jurisdiction. The relevant portion of the judgment is as under:

"1. An explosive escalation of automobile accidents, accounting for more deaths than the most deadly diseases, has become a lethal phenomenon on Indian Roads everywhere. The jural impact of this tragic development on our legislatures, courts and law enforcing agencies is insufficient, with the result that the poor, who are, by and large, the casualty in most of these cases, suffer loss of life or limb and are deprived of expeditious legal remedies in the shape of reasonably quantified compensation promptly paid - and this, even after compulsory motor insurance and nationalisation of insurance business. The facts of these special leave petitions which we dismiss by this order, raise two serious issues which constrain us to make a speaking order. The first deals with legal rights, literacy in the case of automobile accidents and the processual modalities which secure redressal of grievances. The second relates to the consequences of negligence of counsel which misleads a litigant into delayed pursuit of his remedy.

2. Medieval roads with treacherous dangers and total disrepair, explosive increase of heavy vehicles often terribly overloaded and without cautionary signals, reckless drivers crazy with speed and tipsy with spirituous potions, nonenforcement of traffic regulations designed for safety but offering opportunities for systematised corruption and little else and, as a cumulative effect, mounting highway accidents demand a new dimension to the law of torts through no fault liability and processual celerity and simplicity in compensation claims cases. Social justice, the command of the Constitution is being violated by the State itself by neglecting road repairs, ignoring deadly overloads and contesting liability after nationalising the bulk of bus transport and the whole of general insurance business. The jurisprudence of compensation for motor accidents must develop in the direction of no-fault liability and the determination of the quantum must be liberal, not niggardly since the law values life and limb in a free country in generous scales. In the present case, a doctor and his brother riding a motor cycle were hit by a jeep driver and both were killed. The fatal event occurred in November 1971, but the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal delivered judgment five years later awarding sums of Rs.80,000 and Rs.73,500 to the two sets of claimants.

3. The delay of five years in such cases is a terrible commentary on the judicial process. If only no-fault liability, automatic reporting by the police who investigate the accident in a statutory pro-forma signed by the claimants and forwarded to the tribunal as in Tamil Nadu and decentralised empowerment of such tribunals in every district coupled with informal procedures and liberation from court fees and the sophisticated rules of evidence and burden of proof were introduced - easy and inexpensive if the State has the will to help the poor who mostly die in such accidents - law's delays in this compassionate jurisdiction can be banished. Social justice in action is the measure of the State's constitutional sensitivity."

(Emphasis supplied)

2. India has a dubious distinction of having the highest number of road accidents. According to the latest Report of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 4,49,002 road accidents were reported in 2019 resulting in 1,51,113 deaths and 4,51,361 injuries i.e. an