New Delhi: The Courts and Tribunals should make a genuine attempt to help restore the self-dignity of an injured victim by awarding ‘just compensation,” the Supreme Court Wednesday said while enhancing the amount payable to a man who remained in the hospital for 191 days after his bike was hit by a car.
The apex court, which enhanced the amount to Rs 27.67 lakh from Rs 9.38 lakh awarded by the High Court, said the efforts must be to substantially ameliorate the misery of the claimant and recognize his actual needs by accounting for the ground realities.
A bench of Justices R Subhash Reddy and Hrishikesh Roy said the Motor Vehicles Act is in the nature of social welfare legislation and its provisions make it clear that the compensation should be justly determined.
It said that the Tribunal and the Courts must be conscious of the fact that the permanent disability suffered by the individual not only impairs his cognitive abilities and his physical facilities but there are multiple other non-quantifiable implications for the victim.
“The very fact that a healthy person turns into an invalid, being deprived of normal companionship, and incapable of leading a productive life, makes one suffer the loss of self-dignity.
“Such a claimant must not be viewed as a modern-day Oliver Twist, having to make entreaties as the boy in the orphanage in Charles Dickens’s classic, ‘Please Sir, I want some more’. The efforts must be to substantially ameliorate the misery of the claimant and recognize his actual needs by accounting for the ground realities,” the bench said.
The top court was hearing an appeal filed by Kerala resident Jithendran challenging an order of the Kerala high court which awarded him Rs 9.38 lakh as compensation.
Jithendran sustained serious injuries April 13, 2001, when the motorcycle (where he was riding pillion), was hit by a car. Both riders were impacted, resulting in severe head injuries to the appellant.
He was bedridden, totally immobilised, and initially, remained admitted in the hospital for 191 days and suffered 69 per cent permanent disability.
The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal at Thrissur had quantified the payable compensation for the pillion rider as Rs 5.74 lakh.
The apex court said a person is not only to be compensated for the injury suffered due to the accident but also for the loss suffered on account of the injury and his inability to lead the life he led, before the life-altering event.
The top court enhanced the compensation payable to Jithendran at Rs 27.67 lakh noting that the permanent disability as certified by the doctors stands at 69 per cent.
The bench said just compensation is adequate compensation and the award must be just that- no less and no more.
“The plea of the victim suffering from a cruel twist of fate, when asking for some more, is not extravagant but is for seeking appropriate recompense to negotiate with the unforeseeable and the fortuitous twists is his impaired life.
“Therefore, while the money awarded by Courts can hardly redress the actual sufferings of the injured victim (who is deprived of the normal amenities of life and suffers the unease of being a burden on others), the courts can make a genuine attempt to help restore the self-dignity of such claimant, by awarding ‘just compensation’,” the apex court said.
PTI
