A house wife who does odd jobs like tailoring to support her family is an earning member and should be treated as self employed, the Bombay high court has ruled. Two decades after an Amravati house wife Shobha Kothari was mowed down by a car in an alleged case of drunken driving, Justice Ashok Bhangale ruled that the Rs 90,000 compensation awarded by the motor accidents claims tribunal to her husband and children was less and increased it by almost 300 per cent to Rs 3.46 lakhs.
"To my mind, compensation awarded by the (tribunal) is on the lower side. (The tribunal) failed to appreciate that deceased Shobha was not merely a housewife, but she was supporting the family by doing stitching work,'' said Justice Bhangale, adding, "Even in case of a self employed person, income for expectancy of life and prospective increases in the personal income needs to be considered while awarding just and reasonable compensation to the family members and dependents of the deceased victim.'1
The court said that to calculate the compensation her monthly income should be considered as Rs 2,000 "bearing in mind future prospects in her income'' and the fact that she had four dependents - her husband and three minor daughters. Adding other heads of compensation, including, Rs 5,000 towards funeral expenses, Rs 10,000 towards loss of love and affection, and Rs 25,000 to the husband for loss of a companion, the court ordered the insurance company to pay a total compensation of Rs 3.46 lakh to the family for the fatal accident. The court also asked the insurer to pay 9 per cent interest on the amount.
The incident dates back to the early 1990s when Shobha and her husband along with her three daughters were standing by the side of the road besides their scooter. A car, allegedly driven at high speed by a drunk driver, rammed into Shobha killing her. The accidents claims tribunal in 1995 awarded the Kothari family Rs 90,000 compensation, which the family said was inadequate.
Accidents claims
Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal or MACT hears matters concerning compensation of motor accidents victims or their next of kin. In case of injury the victim himself or in the case of death legal heirs can approach MACT. A no fault liability compensation can be granted to the victims/legal heirs during the pendency of the application. To calculate the final compensation, MACT uses a complicated mechanism where it takes into account, the person's age, his salary, number of dependents, likely increase in income if the deceased had lived and deductions for dependents and other expenses. In case of minors or a person who is not employed, the tribunal considers a fixed amount as per rules for the annual income.
No comments:
Post a Comment