Discuss the no-fault liability and hit-and-run provisions of the MV Act, as amended in 2019.

Motor accident compensation in India is a statutory entitlement adjudicated by Motor Accidents Claims Tribunals, not an ordinary civil suit. With 1,77,175 road deaths and crash losses of about 3.14% of GDP in 2024 [6], the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 recast two victim-centric pillars — no-fault liability and hit-and-run cover — to ensure that the dependant, not the litigation, comes first.

No-fault liability (Section 164)

• Compensation for death or grievous hurt is payable without proof of negligence — Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh respectively [5].
• It removes the claimant's hardest burden: assembling police records, witnesses and expert evidence to prove fault.
• It coexists with the fault-based claim under Section 166, which has no ceiling and can be sized to the actual loss of dependency [5].
• Trade-off: the fixed sum is uniform for a young sole earner and a person with no dependants, and electing it forecloses the larger award — pressuring the poorest claimants toward the smaller figure.

Hit-and-run provisions

• Minimum compensation raised from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh for death, and Rs 12,500 to Rs 50,000 for grievous hurt [1].
• A Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (S.164B) funds hit-and-run payouts, golden-hour treatment and compulsory cover for all road users [1].
• The Scheme of 2022 (notified 25 February 2022) operationalised the higher amounts, made the claim process time-bound and superseded the Solatium Scheme, 1989 [2].
• The golden hour was defined statutorily, enabling cashless care; PM-RAHAT (launched 13 February 2026) now pays hospitals directly up to Rs 1.5 lakh per victim for seven days [4].

Concerns

• PRS flagged the unclear overlap between the old Solatium Fund and the new Fund, and the risk of vehicle owners paying twice — premium plus cess [3].
• The regime has a strong payment arm but a weak prevention arm; insurers absorb awards, so negligent owners face little deterrence.

The 2019 amendments meaningfully shift the burden from grieving families to an institutional risk pool, advancing Article 21's guarantee of life and dignity. Going forward, the fast no-fault sum should operate as an interim floor payable while the fault-based claim proceeds, and compensation reform must be paired with engineering, enforcement and trauma-care measures so that fewer claims arise at all.