Mumbai, May 2: The Bombay High Court has enhanced compensation in a decades-old motor accident case involving the death of a six-year-old child, holding that notional income and future prospects must be considered even in the absence of specific evidence about the child’s career.
Justice Abhay Ahuja, on April 30, allowed an appeal challenging a 1997 award of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), Thane. The detailed order was made available on Saturday.
HC enhances compensation
The appeal sought enhancement of compensation, particularly on account of “loss of dependency”. The tribunal had earlier rejected this claim, reasoning that the deceased was only six years old and there was no evidence indicating what the child would have become in the future.
The tribunal had granted a lump sum compensation of Rs 35,000 for mental agony and pain, expenses towards funeral and loss of love and affection.
Advocate Ketki Gokhale, appearing for the appellant mother, relied on Supreme Court rulings to argue that courts should adopt a notional income approach in such cases. She submitted that compensation of Rs 5 lakh had been awarded in similar circumstances and urged the court to follow the same principle.
The insurance company sought time to respond, but the court declined, noting that the matter was old and “cannot be delayed any further,” especially since notice had already been served.
Notional income can be applied
Justice Ahuja observed that while in the Meena Devi case there was evidence of the child’s academic performance, “in the facts of the present case, there is no such evidence.” The tribunal had also recorded that even the name of the school attended by the child was not established.
However, the court emphasised that settled law permits consideration of notional income and future prospects even in such situations. Referring to precedents such as Kishan Gopal vs. Lala and Sarla Varma vs. Delhi Transport Corporation, it calculated the loss of dependency by taking a notional annual income of Rs 30,000 and applying a multiplier of 15.
“The loss of dependency would come to Rs 4,50,000,” the court held, adding that no deduction towards personal expenses was required since the child was fully dependent on the parents.
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Parents to share amount equally
The court retained the tribunal’s earlier award of Rs 35,000 under conventional heads such as funeral expenses and loss of love and affection. It thus enhanced the total compensation to Rs 4,85,000, along with 12% annual interest from the date of filing of the claim.
The amount is to be paid jointly by the respondents and deposited before the MACT, Thane, within six weeks. The compensation will be equally shared by the child’s parents.
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