'Link to vehicle key proof for Motor Vehicles Act claim': Supreme Court answers victim families' question

The Supreme Court ruled that compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act cannot be granted solely because a murder took place inside a vehicle; a direct link to the vehicle's use must be established.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Augustine George Masih held that claimants must prove a causal nexus between the vehicle's use and the death or injury.

The ruling came in a case where Anand was murdered while travelling in a car driven by Dilip; the tribunal and high court had accepted the family's claim, but the Supreme Court overturned both decisions.

The court noted that the criminal prosecution failed to establish the 'last seen' theory, and there was no forensic evidence connecting the car to the murder, such as blood or hair.

The court stated that merely because a car was involved in a chain of circumstances leading to death, the MVA would not apply; some link between the car and the death must be established.