Delhi HC stays order to dig grave of accident victim in claims row

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[google-translator]

The Delhi high court has stayed a December 2022 order of the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal (MACT) that directed a body to be exhumed to verify compensation claims by his alleged kin.

According to authorities, the man died in a road accident last year and at least four people, claiming to be his legal heirs, demanded compensation from the authorities. (HT Photo)
According to authorities, the man died in a road accident last year and at least four people, claiming to be his legal heirs, demanded compensation from the authorities. (HT Photo)

According to authorities, the man died in a road accident last year and at least four people, claiming to be his legal heirs, demanded compensation from the authorities. The MACT on December 15, 2022directed that the body be exhumed and a DNA test performed to verify whether the petitioners were indeed his legal heirs.

The tribunal’s order came after the Investigating officer (IO) provided the court with a Detailed Accident Report (DAR).

However, the man’s sons moved the high court against the MACT order, petitioning againt the exhumation and challenging the earlier petitioners’ claim. The counsel for the high court petitioners submitted that one of the reasons for the tribunal issuing such directions could be that in the opinion of the tribunal, the original petitioners were greedy people trying to claim compensation even though they were not related to the deaceased man. He also submitted that this presumption was wholly incorrect. Even otherwise, once the Investigating Officer had been directed to conduct further investigation, the report whereof was still awaited, no such directions which would amount to affronting the dignity of a dead person could be passed by the learned tribunal.

On February 24, while denying permission for exhumation, justice Rekha Palli said that the MACT failed to appreciate that a body cannot be exhumed and DNA test cannot be ordered in such a routine manner.

“The directions for digging up of the grave to carry out a DNA test, were in my view wholly unwarranted,” justice Palli pointed out.

Staying the impugned order till May 19, the court granted the respondents four weeks’ time to file a counter affidavit in the matter.

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