The Supreme Court. had taken a serious note of the issue relating to some advocates involved in filing fake claim petitions under Motor Accident Claims Tribunal and Workmen Compensation Act.The SC bench consisting of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice Sanjiv Khanna on 16th November has given its observation on fraudulent MACT cases in the case of Safiq Ahmad Vs ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd. & ors.
New Delhi:
After the Supreme Court’s ruling on the involvement of a few advocates in fraudulent motor accident cases, the Bar Council of India has suspended 28 advocates of Uttar Pradesh for filing fake claim cases in Motor Accident Claims Tribunal(MACT).
Earlier,the Supreme Court. has taken a serious note of the issue relating to some advocates involved in filing fake claim petitions under Motor Accident Claims Tribunal and Workmen Compensation Act.The SC bench consisting of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice Sanjiv Khanna on 16th November have given its observation on fraudulent MACT cases in the case of Safiq Ahmad Vs ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd. & ors.
The Court has pointed out that a special investigation team in Uttar Pradesh constituted at the direction of the High Court of Allahabad, Lucknow Bench, for investigation of the cases of suspicious claims, has detected that a total of 233 suspicious claims against various insurance companies have been dismissed or dismissed in default or not pressed due to of which various claim petitions claiming amount of Rs 300,76,40,000 have been rejected by the MACT.
The Court observed that he SIT was constituted by the High Court to look into the filing of the fake claim petitions and with the specific purpose for investigating the issue but the investigation in most of the cases/FIRs is reported to be pending.
“Out of total 92 criminal cases in various districts registered till date, of which 28 advocates have been named as accused persons in 55 cases, the investigation has been concluded/completed in 32 cases and the change sheet has been filed. In rest of the cases, the investigation is stated to be pending,” said the SC Bench.
The Court had asked the chairman, Bar Council of India Manan Kumar Mishra, senior advocate to look into the matter.
Mishra had stated before the Supreme Court that the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh was not co-operating in sending the names of the advocates who had indulged in such illegal activities of filing such fake claim petitions.
However, Mishra assured the Court that if the Bar Council of India receives the names of the advocates involved in filing fake claim petitions, the necessary disciplinary action shall be taken by the Bar Council of India against them immediately.
Finally,the Court had directed the SIT to send to Bar Council of India the list of advocates involved in filing the fake claims against whom the FIRs/Charge sheets are filed within a period of three days from the date of the order and the list was sent by SIT to Bar Council of India.