Sunday, December 27, 2009

Compensation for mishap victims based on future earnings

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad, Dec. 26: In a significant judgement deciding compensation for a road accident victim, the Andhra Pradesh High Court evolved a rational and scientific method by which the victims, two final year students of software engineering, were awarded an amount based on their potential earnings.

In arriving at the compensation, the bench took into consideration the pay pack they would have got at the entry level as well as over a time period by calculating the pay based on that of their surviving companions.

A division bench comprising Justice A. Gopala Reddy and Justice B. Chandra Kumar while allowing two civil miscellaneous appeals filed by the parents of two engineering students awarded a sum of Rs 10,80,000 to the claimants. The money has to be paid by insurance firms.

The court said the claimants are also entitled to Rs 5,000 as funeral expenses and Rs 5,000 towards loss of estate.

G. Prashanth Reddy and B. Ravi Kumar of Mahbubnagar district were killed in road accidents while they were going along with 14 of their friends on eight motorcycles in 1995 at Tumkur in Karnataka.

The Motor Accidents Claim Tribunal at Mahbubnagar considering that both the deceased were only students, fixed the notional income of each deceased at Rs 5,000 per month awarded the compensation of Rs 3,90,000 to each claimant.

The court considered that the minimum wage of an engineer at the entry level is Rs 12,000 and awarded the compensation.

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