The Madras High Court has on its own enhanced the compensation awarded by the Motor Vehicles Accident Claims Tribunal to the family of a 20-year-old mason killed in a road accident in the state in 2012.
Departing from the ceiling of Rs 40,000 fixed for loss of consortium and dismissing the plea of Oriental Insurance Company, Hosur, against the order of the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (District Court, Krishnagiri) awarding Rs 18.88 lakh, Justices N Kirubakaran and R Pongiappan of the Madurai bench, in a recent order, hiked the compensation to Rs 25.30 lakh.
The high court felt that the compensation awarded by the tribunal was not just and reasonable in this case.
The bench said this case should be viewed with compassion as the woman had lost her husband at the age of 19 with their girl child not having seen her father at all, as she was born after his death.
It further said it would have been an agonising ordeal for the young woman in the absence of her husband.
There was not only lack of celebration and enjoyment, but also deprivation of marital pleasures, and she had to undergo constant mental agony grief and carry the stigma of losing her husband within a short period of her marriage, the bench said, adding that the security provided by the husband was lost.
On enhancing the compensation amount, it said the court has the power and jurisdiction to enhance the compensation in the appeal filed by the insurance company even in the absence of appeal or cross-appeal by the claimants.
The deceased Raghu, who was earning Rs 9,000 a month in masonry work, died in 2012 in Hosur due to rash and negligent driving by a bus driver.
The bench also observed, "Deaths due to motor accidents are avoidable and have to be averted at any cost. When a person cannot end even his own life by committing suicide, no one has got any right either to injure or cause death of other road users. Therefore, an individual cannot injure himself or harm others or cause death of others by his reckless act."
"For no fault committed by either the child or the mother or the victim himself, the entire family is made to suffer because of the irresponsible act committed by a stranger, namely, the driver of the bus, who drove the vehicle, rashly and negligently, unmindful of the consequences," it said.
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