Judges Facing Hardships During Claim Settlements for the Victims

Evaluating deaths and victims from accidents by the judges is very difficult. This dilemma was reflected in the judgments delivered by the Supreme Court and the high courts. The Supreme Court enhanced the compensation for an accident victim nearly four times, rejecting the computation of loss of income adopted by the motor accident claims tribunal. In this case, Sandeep Khanuja vs Atul Dande, a 30 year-old chartered accountant lost 70 per cent of his earning capacity in a road accident. The tribunal awarded him Rs. 5 lakh, the Chhattisgarh High Court raised it to Rs. 6 lakh.

On his further appeal, the Supreme Court fixed the amount at Rs. 20 lakh. In another case, Oriental Insurance Co Vs Swapna Nayak, the court awarded Rs. 3.75 crore for the death of an IT executive working in the US, who came to Odisha on a holiday. In the month of March Calcutta High Court blamed the lawmakers for not correcting typing/arithmetic errors in a chart to calculate damages in the Motor Vehicles Act for over two decades, confounding the courts.