The Supreme Court today(July 28) passed an order directing the Registrar Generals of High Courts of Delhi, Allahabad, Madras, Meghalaya and Telangana to file a compliance report regarding the creation of dashboards indicating live updates on amounts lying deposited in connection with motor claims or labour court compensations.

It may be recalled that in April 2025, a bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan issued a slew of directions after a letter was addressed by a retired District Judge, BB Pathak, to the Court raising concern that huge amounts of compensation are lying unclaimed before Courts.

It directed that compensation paid to claimants under the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 or the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 is to be directly credited to their bank accounts. One of the directions was that the High Courts, with the help of State governments, shall create a dashboard on which the information regarding amounts lying deposited in connection with the compensation shall be established and regularly updated with details.

In today's hearing, Advocate Vishaka, on behalf of Amicus Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora, raised the concern that some High Courts are yet to implement this direction. As for the other directions, she informed the bench comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Atul S Chandurkar that they have been implemented.

Justice Bhuyan asked counsels of individual High Courts why the dashboard has not been established. The counsel for Delhi High Court submitted that they are in talks with some banks and would need time till this year in order to implement. Initially, he asked for eight weeks but stated that he had instructions that the end of the year would be feasible in order to implement the directions.

Responding to this, Justice Bhuyan questioned why so much time is required when more than 15 months have already passed. He said: "End of the year? We will have to summon the Registrar General. Let the Registrar General be present. These are the orders of the Supreme Court. The day we start acting tough, [it will be complied with]."

It ordered: "Heard Ms Vishaka, appearing for the amicus, and learned senior counsel Meenakshi Arora. On 21.4.26, we had passed the following order. Today, the learned amicus submitted a note; paragraph 4 is relevant and is extracted here. We direct the Registrar Generals of Delhi High Court, Allahabad High Court, Madras High Court, Meghalaya and High Court of Telangana to submit a compliance report in terms of the direction j as extracted supra within six weeks from today. Learned standing counsels representing above five High Courts shall positively present in the next hearing. List on 16.9.2026."

Case Details: IN RE COMPENSATION AMOUNTS DEPOSITED WITH MOTOR ACCIDENT CLAIMS TRIBUNALS AND LABOUR COURTS |SMW(C) No. 7/2024