Section 163 — Scheme for payment of compensation in case of hit and run motor accidents.

163. Scheme for payment of compensation in case of hit and run motor accidents.—(1) The 

Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make a scheme specifying, the manner 

in which the scheme shall be administered by the General Insurance Corporation, the form, manner and 

the time within which applications for compensation may be made, the officers or authorities to whom 

such applications may be made, the procedure to be followed by such officers or authorities for 

considering and passing orders on such applications, and all other matters connected with, or incidental 

to, the administration of the scheme and the payment of compensation. 

(2) A scheme made under sub-section (1) may provide that— 

(a) a contravention of any provision thereof shall be punishable with imprisonment for such term 

as may be specified but in no case exceeding three months, or with fine which may extend to such 

amount as may be specified but in no case exceeding five hundred rupees or with both; 

(b) the powers, functions or duties conferred or imposed on any officer or authority by such 

scheme may be delegated with the prior approval in writing of the Central Government, by such 

officer or authority to any other officer or authority; 

(c) any provision of such scheme may operate with retrospective effect from a date not earlier 

than the date of establishment of the Solatium Fund under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (4 of 1939), 

as it stood immediately before the commencement of this Act: 

Provided that no such retrospective effect shall be given so as to prejudicially affect the interests 

of any person who may be governed by such provision.