File a written petition under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, naming the driver, the vehicle owner and the insurer as respondents. There is no court fee on the claim. You can file in the tribunal where the accident happened, where you live or work, or where the respondent lives. Try to file within six months of the accident.
Short on time? Jump to the step-by-step below, gather the FIR copy and the accident charge sheet, and file the Section 166 petition. If you need a quick, fixed sum without proving fault, consider the Section 164 no-fault route instead.
A MACT claim is a compensation case, not a criminal case. The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (a special civil tribunal) decides how much the at-fault driver, owner and insurer must pay you for injury, disability or a death in the family. It runs separately from any FIR or police case against the driver, and separately from your own car or bike insurance.
Three provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 (as amended by the MV Amendment Act 2019) do the heavy lifting.
The 2019 amendment put a limitation period back into the law. Section 166(3) says “no application for compensation shall be entertained unless it is made within six months of the occurrence of the accident.” This sub-section was notified with effect from 1 April 2022, so it applies to accidents on or after that date.
Do not panic if you are slightly late. Several High Courts (Gujarat, Gauhati, Allahabad) have held that this six-month rule is not an automatic, fatal bar, and that a tribunal can still admit a delayed claim for sufficient cause. But the safe rule is simple: file within six months. Do not rely on a court excusing your delay.
For a death claim, tribunals use the multiplier method settled by the Supreme Court Constitution Bench in National Insurance Co. Ltd v. Pranay Sethi (2017), which built on Sarla Verma (2009).
The core formula is: annual income x a multiplier (chosen by the age of the deceased) x the share left after deducting personal and living expenses.
On top of the income, the court adds future prospects: an extra 50% if the deceased had a permanent job and was under 40, 30% for ages 40 to 50, and 15% for ages 50 to 60. Pranay Sethi also fixed conventional, non-pecuniary heads, loss of estate, loss of consortium and funeral expenses, with the amounts rising 10% every three years. For an injury claim, you also recover medical expenses, loss of earning capacity, and pain and suffering.
You do not have to do this maths perfectly yourself. State your income honestly and prove it; the tribunal applies the formula.
Insurers routinely contest negligence, dispute the income proof, or offer a quick, low lump sum. A low early offer is rarely “just compensation”.
You can settle the claim in a Lok Adalat, where an agreed award is final and binding and there is no further appeal. This is faster and avoids years of litigation, but only accept a figure that reflects the multiplier-method maths above. If the offer is far below that, let the tribunal decide. You keep the right to appeal a tribunal award to the High Court if it is too low.
The injured person files for an injury. For a death, the legal representatives and dependants of the deceased file, spouse, children and parents. A legal heir certificate or similar proof of relationship establishes who is entitled.
It varies by state and tribunal load, often one to three years for a contested claim. Section 164 no-fault relief and interim payments can come sooner. A Lok Adalat settlement can close the matter in a single sitting if both sides agree.
No, but it helps. The procedure, evidence and the multiplier-method calculation are technical, and the insurer will have a lawyer. If you cannot afford one, you qualify for free legal aid through the District Legal Services Authority. See Lok Adalat and free legal aid eligibility.
No. A motor accident claim petition under Section 166 carries no court fee. This is deliberate, so that cost does not stop accident victims from claiming.
For a genuine hit-and-run where the vehicle is untraced, claim from the government fund under the Compensation to Victims of Hit and Run Motor Accidents Scheme, 2022: ₹2 lakh for death and ₹50,000 for grievous hurt. Apply to the Claims Enquiry Officer (usually the local SDM/Tahsildar) for your area.
Your own insurance is a separate contract. A MACT claim is against the at-fault party and their insurer. If your insurer wrongly denies or delays your own policy claim, that is an insurance-regulation grievance, escalate it through the insurance regulator and ombudsman route, not the MACT.