“These are unusual times. This is an unusual order. It is sheer force of circumstances witnessed by the entire world that has impelled and compelled this court to take note and come to the rescue of the litigants, the innocent motor accident victims in particular,” began an order passed by the Madras High Court on Tuesday.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh observed so while taking an unprecedented decision of accepting a memo filed by private insurer Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company to transfer to the High Court about 23 motor accident claims cases pending before tribunals across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and dispose of them.
The judge recorded the submission made by Vijayaraghavan Narasimhan, counsel for the insurance company, that its team of lawyers had struck a compromise with all 23 claimants and their advocates through videoconferencing and obtained their consent to get those cases closed on total payment of Rs.51.59 lakh.
Commending the insurance firm for having taken the initiative to settle a considerable number of cases at a time of distress, the judge ordered the transfer of all those cases to the High Court and disposed of them after recording the compromise even though the insurance company had not filed individual petitions to do so.
Willing to give the procedure of filing petitions along with accompanying affidavits the go-by, he observed that “procedure is the handmaid of justice” and that it could not take away the residuary power in judges to act ex debito justitiae (an obligation arising out of the justice of the matter in question) where otherwise it would be wholly inequitable.
“Law has never failed to rise up to the situation. It moulds itself. But it requires the stakeholders to play their part too. The court is always willing to listen, adjust and accommodate for the very purpose of its existence is to serve the Lady of Justice… The response from this court cannot lag behind efforts taken by the insurer, their counsel and counsel for the claimants,” he concluded.
