The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has halved the compensation payable to the family of a 30-year-old private firm employee who died in a road crash while driving on the wrong side on the road in 2023.
The court was hearing two appeals – one from the family of the deceased driver seeking increase in the compensation awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), and the second by the insurance firm arguing that it was a case of contributory negligence and thus full compensation liability should not be placed on the driver of offending vehicle. The scooter was on the wrong side of the road when it collided with an Ertiga car. Kumar died before reaching the hospital. When the matter later reached HC, the court took into account the version of the pillion rider, whom it termed the natural eyewitness to the occurrence. The FIR too had been lodged on the basis of his statement. The court also found that the tribunal had taken the victim’s take-home salary as the base salary for assessing the compensation. “The purpose of assessing income in a claim for compensation is to determine the financial contribution which the deceased would have made to his family. Take-home salary cannot mechanically be treated as the income for this purpose, particularly, when the evidence of employer establishes a higher salary figure and the difference between the two figures represents deductions from the salary,” it observed and applied his total salary – or cost to company (CTC) – for making calculations for award of compensation to the victim’s family.
The accident had taken place in Pinjore on March 8, 2023, when the victim, Ashok Kumar, was going on his scooter with pillion rider Rinku. A year later, MACT, Panchkula, awarded ₹ 18 lakh compensation to the family of the deceased. The total compensation was assessed at ₹ 21 lakh, approximately ₹ 3 lakh more than ₹ 18 lakh awarded by the tribunal. As the 50% negligence was attributed to the deceased driver, the family was entitled for 50% of total compensation and awarded ₹ 10 lakh with a rate of interest of 7.5% from the date of filing of the claim.
The scooter was being driven on the wrong side when the accident occurred, according to the pillion rider’s version.
Thus, the evidence on record presents a case where negligence is attributable to both sides, the court stated.
