More compensation for mishap victims

Times News Network

New Delhi: Providing much needed comfort to a large number of people who are left physically handicapped in road accidents, the Supreme Court has ruled that courts are free to award a higher compensation amount than what the victim had asked for.

There was no bar on the tribunals and courts under the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA) to restrict the award of compensation to the amount claimed by the victim, a Bench of Justices M B Shah, B P Singh and H K Sema said while hearing the appeal of a villager whose leg had to be amputated after he met with a road accident.

The amount he received as compensation was not enough to meet the cost of an artificial leg which needed to be replaced every two years.

The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, does not imposes a bar on the compensation amount, the Bench said, adding: "Only embargo is (that) it should be 'just' compensation, that is to say it should be neither arbitrary, fanciful nor unjustifiable from the evidence".

Enhancing the compensation by Rs 1 lakh, the Bench said, "In an appropriate case where from the evidence…the tribunal or court considers that claimant is entitled to get more compensation that claimed, the tribunal may pass such an award".

n a case where the evidence justified an enhanced compensation for medical treatment, there was no reason why such enhanced compensation should not be granted, the court said. However, the court clarified that the MVA did not provide for passing of further award after the final award was passed

Source: The Times of India
Dated :7th December, 2002