The Supreme Court modified the award of Motor Accident Claim Tribunal (MACT) and judgment of the High Court.
The Supreme Court modified the award of Motor Accident Claim Tribunal (MACT) and judgment of the High Court.
Mohit Goel a 23-year-old bachelor had met with an accident and died. His parent filed a claim petition before MACT. The MACT directed the insurer to pay only half of the amount (₹25,48,050/-) to the claimant, as on account of contributory negligence, the amount will be deducted up to the extent of 50%. The High Court upheld the order of MACT.
While in appeal in SC, the bench comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Ajay Rastogi and Aniruddha Bose upheld the contributory negligence, observed:
“We have examined the impugned judgment and all other perspective also and do not find any infirmity except two aspects: (a) the multiplier applied was 13 while as per the judgment in Sarla Verma & Ors. v. Delhi Transport Corporation & Anr. – (2009) 6 SCC 121, it should have been 18. This position cannot be disputed by learned counsel for the respondent. (b) The interest granted is of 6% which generally the interest being granted is of 9% including in a recent judgment in the case of Erudhaya Priya v. State Express Transport Corporation Ltd. (Civil Appeal Nos. 2811-2812/2020) decided on 27th July, 2020.“
Therefore SC modified the judgment of the High Court applying the above observations.
In Sarla Verma & Ors. v. Delhi Transport Corporation & Anr. (2009) 6 SCC 121 the SC had set the standard of the multiplier in case of motor accident compensation.
As mentioned below:
A multiplier of ’18’ for age group of 15-20 & 21-25 years, later will reduce by one unit for every 5 years, multiplier of ’17’ for 26-30 years, multiplier of ’16’ for 31-35 years, multiplier of ’15’ for 36-40 years, multiplier of ’14’ for 41-45 years, and multiplier of ’13’ for 46-50 years. Further then reduced by two units for every 5 years, multiplier of ’11’ for 51-55 years, multiplier of ‘9’ for 56-60 years, multiplier of ‘7’ for 61-65 years and multiplier of ‘5’ for 65 and above years.
