NEW DELHI: You may have to make a one-time payment of up to Rs 500 while buying a new vehicle as the government would need around Rs 800 crore annually to pay compensation in hit and run cases. The new funding mechanism to pay the compensation would commence once the Supreme Court gives its go ahead.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case on Wednesday where the framework for paying Rs 2 lakh compensation to kin of dead and Rs 50,000 for injured persons is likely to be submitted.

The apex court in February had accepted the recommendation of the court-appointed committee on road safety to increase the minimum compensation for death in a hit and run case from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh. It had also asked all stakeholders, including the Centre, to hold consultations to frame a scheme of payment. The court is scheduled to take up the case on Tuesday.

Currently, the compensation for injured persons is Rs 12,500. In 2017, nearly 26,000 people were killed in hit and run cases and another 60,000 were left injured. TOI has learnt that the compensation framework may set a time limit of 90 days for disbursal of compensation.

Hit and run cases are those where the accused vehicle and their owners are not identified and traced. In such cases, the compensation is released from a dedicated solatium fund and currently General Insurance Corporation manages it.

A bench of Justices S A Bobde, Deepak Gupta and Vineet Saran had recently asked the Centre and the apex court’s amicus curiae , advocate Gaurav Agarwal, and other stakeholders to submit a scheme for a “faithful distribution of the amount, which may be paid over to the victims of hit-and-run motor accident cases”.

Though the government had moved amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act to increase the compensation in hit and run cases, the bill could not be passed and has lapsed. “In such a situation, SC direction would help putting a framework in place,” said a government functionary.

