Justice Manmohan Sarin, however, stressed that the settlement would have no bearing on the criminal case currently pending against the accused in Patiala House courts. The Nandas will hand over the drafts in the court on December 3.

Earlier, Justice Sarin sought to dissociate the court from the assertion made by Nandas' counsel, R.K. Anand, requesting that the victims sign a statement saying the vehicle involved in the accident was not BMW but a truck.

``Let it be put on record that the statement is not accepted by the court and it is not granting its seal of approval to it,'' he said. The Nandas have already paid Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the three deceased and Rs 5 lakh to the lone survivor of the accident that occurred at Lodhi Road on January 10 this year.

The NGO, Coalition for Rural Empowerment, had demanded ``exemplary damages'' for the families of six deceased and one survivor on the basis of net worth of the accused. Those indirectly responsible for the accident, including the party hosts who served liquor to 20-year-old Sanjeev Nanda, and his sister, whose car he was driving were also made an equal party.

The case is unusual in more ways than one. To begin with, the law of torts (breach of duty, leading to liability for damages) that's routinely being invoked in the USA for such cases, was applied in the case instead of the usual procedure of approaching the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), where a family would have secured a maximum of Rs 1 lakh in compensation that is computed on the basis of the net worth of the victim.

The counsel for the victims, Amitabaha Sen, had argued that the victims' status should not be the sole indicator for calculating the quantum of compensation. Instead, the status of perpetrators should be considered to determine the claim.

Sen claimed that his point was vindicated by the settlement as the defendants were scared at the prospect of coughing up even a fraction of the Rs 200 crore demanded by the NGO for the victims' families. Hoping that the case serve as a deterrent for others, he said: ``The owner of a car or a Blueline would think several times over before employing an inexperienced driver.''