New Delhi: Supreme Court has said that if a private vehicle demanded by the district administration meets with an accident, the liability for payment of compensation will be fixed on the government and not on the insurance company.A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and NK Singh said, “Where a vehicle is requisitioned for public purposes and an incident occurs during the period of such requisition, the liability should appropriately be borne by the requisitioning authority and not by the insurer appointed by the owner for the regular and voluntary use of the vehicle.”A bus from Kidzie Corner School of Gwalior was demanded by the district administration for the Gram Panchayat elections. During this period, it hit a motorcyclist, killing him in January 2010. The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal awarded a compensation of Rs 5.1 lakh with 6% interest. SC had increased the compensation to Rs 27 lakh in 2024.Rejecting the district administration’s contention that fixing the onus on civic officials would send a wrong signal, a bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and NK Singh said that when the government requisitions a private vehicle, the custody is taken away from its owner.Writing the judgment, Justice Karol said, “During this period, the owner neither directs its use nor derives any benefit from it. It only stands to reason that in such circumstances, if any untoward incident occurs, the responsibility would properly lie with the acquiring authority and not with the insurer appointed by the owner.”The Supreme Court said, “Compulsory deployment for public purposes cannot appropriately be described as ‘regular use’… to impose a liability on the insurer… would extend the contract beyond the risk it had agreed to cover.”