Critically evaluate the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal system as a mechanism of access to justice.

India recorded 1,77,175 road deaths and 4,87,707 crashes in 2024 [5]. For dependants left behind, justice means compensation. Motor Accidents Claims Tribunals (MACTs), constituted by State governments under Section 165, Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 [1], are a substantial but incomplete answer.

Strengths as an access-to-justice mechanism

• Specialised statutory forum: a claim lies by simple application under S.166, replacing a costly, evidence-heavy civil suit [1].
• No-fault liability (S.164): a fixed sum — Rs 5 lakh for death, Rs 2.5 lakh for grievous hurt — without proving negligence, lowering the evidentiary wall for poor claimants [1].
• Assured payer: compulsory third-party insurance backs the award, and the 2019 amendment removed the earlier ceiling on insurer liability [2].
• Victims with no defendant covered: hit-and-run compensation raised to Rs 2 lakh (death) and Rs 50,000 (grievous hurt), payable from the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (S.164B) [1][2].
• Individualised awards: only the fault-based route sizes relief to actual loss of dependency [1].

Limitations

• Delay defeats the remedy: awards arrive months or years later, while the golden hour — one hour after injury — decides survival [2].
• Speed bought by surrender: the one-month payment under S.164 requires the family to accept the fixed sum, closing off a larger fault-based award; those with the least staying power take the smallest amount [1][2].
• Institutional overlap: PRS flagged that with the Solatium Fund already existing, the new Accident Fund's purpose for hit-and-run cases is unclear, as is whether a victim may claim from either or both; a funding cess could make owners pay twice [3].
• No deterrence: the insurer pays, not the negligent owner, so over-speeding, poor road upkeep and weak driver training remain untouched — crashes still cost about 3.14% of GDP [5].

MACTs succeed in making compensation claimable, but not in making it timely or preventive. PM-RAHAT — Rs 1.5 lakh cashless treatment reimbursed to hospitals from the Accident Fund [4] — shows the right direction: shifting the State's payment upstream to the moment it saves life, so that compensation completes rather than substitutes for road-safety governance.