New Delhi
The Supreme Court has recently said in an important decision that if the dependents (sons or daughters) of a deceased have managed their business, motor accident compensation cannot be reduced on this basis. The court also overturned the High Court verdict and ordered the payment of the amount set by the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal (MACT).
A bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah emphasized that the contribution of the deceased should be considered while assessing the claims of compensation. With this decision, the bench has given great relief to the daughters of a deceased couple who challenged the High Court verdict in the apex court. The deceased couple used to run a business in the case and died in a road accident. After this, their daughters demanded compensation of one crore each for both (parents).
According to a report by Live Law, Mact after considering his application fixed a compensation of Rs 58.24 lakh for the deceased father and Rs 93.61 lakh for mother and said that this amount should be made with 7.5% annual interest. Against this decision, the Oriental Insurance approached the High Court and argued that since the daughters of the deceased have taken over the business, their damage should be reduced.
On this, the Madras High Court reduced the claim fixed by MCAT to Rs 26.68 lakh and Rs 19.22 lakh, citing minimum financial loss due to daughters taking business into their hands. After this, the victim’s daughter approached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court considered in this case whether the High Court reduced the compensation amount and the arguments behind it are correct.
Justice Amanullah overturned the High Court’s decision in the judgment and wrote that it ignored the contribution of the deceased persons in the establishment of the business. The court also emphasized that due to lack of experience and maturity of the appellant, they less At age, there must have been challenges in establishing business, which would have led to a decline in their profit. The Supreme Court said that the correct stance has not been shown in determining the factors to fix compensation. Therefore, the insurance company will have to pay compensation fixed by MACT.
Let me tell you that the parents of the petitioner Vishnu Ganga died in a road accident in 2007, when both of them were leaving a tempo, when a bus coming from the other side hit them. After the death of his parents, Ganga claimed a compensation of one crore for both of them.
