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Mohd. Sabeer @ Shabir Hussain vs Regional Manager, U.P. State Road Transport Corporation

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 1266Decided 9 Dec 2022
Civil Appeal Nos. 9070-9071 of 2022
Krishna Murari · S. Ravindra Bhat · V. Ramasubramanian

Background

Mohd. Sabeer, a scrap dealer, was a passenger on a U.P. State Road Transport bus that, driven rashly and negligently, hit a parked tempo near Ghaziabad around 12:30 am. He suffered severe injuries including amputation of his right lower limb, with a disability certificate recording 70% permanent disability. The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal awarded him about Rs. 15.76 lakh; the Delhi High Court, while affirming liability, reduced his assessed functional disability to just 35% and raised the compensation only slightly to about Rs. 16.7 lakh, also denying him "future prospects" because his income tax returns showed his income had risen after the accident. His review petition was dismissed, leading to this appeal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had wrongly equated a low functional-disability percentage with the real impact of losing a leg on a self-employed scrap dealer who needs mobility to run his business, and fixed the loss of earning capacity at 60% instead of 35%. It also held that a post-accident rise in income (from tax returns predating the accident, in any event) does not disqualify a claimant from future-prospects compensation, and awarded the standard 40% future-prospects addition per the Pranay Sethi precedent. The Court substantially increased compensation for the prosthetic limb (to cover three replacements over his expected lifetime) and for pain, suffering, and loss of amenities, citing the duty to compensate claimants from economically weaker backgrounds liberally. Total compensation was raised from about Rs. 16.7 lakh to Rs. 38,70,120 with 9% interest, and the appeals were allowed.

Lesson Learnt

Compensation for permanent disability in a motor accident must reflect the claimant's real, occupation-specific loss of earning capacity, not just a clinical disability percentage, and a rise in post-accident income (especially from a period predating the accident) is not by itself a valid reason to deny future-prospects compensation.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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