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Rajendra Singh & Ors. v. National Insurance Company Ltd.

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 438Decided 18 Jun 2020
Civil Appeal No. 2624 of 2020
Justice Navin Sinha · Justice B.R. Gavai

Background

A mother (aged about 30) and her 12-year-old daughter died when the horse cart they were travelling in, on the way to a religious gathering, was hit by a bus. The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal awarded compensation to the surviving husband/father and three minor children but cut it by 50% on the ground that the horse cart was allegedly in the middle of the road, calling this "contributory negligence." The High Court dismissed the family's appeal for enhancement, so they approached the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that passengers travelling in a horse cart cannot be blamed for how the cart was being driven or positioned on the road, so the 50% deduction for contributory negligence was completely unjustified and was set aside for both deceased. For the mother, relying on precedent recognising the value of a housewife's unpaid labour, the Court fixed her notional income at Rs. 5,000/month and added 40% for future prospects, raising her family's compensation to Rs. 11,96,000. For the daughter, the Court held that the loss of a child's future cannot be measured only in monetary terms and that "just compensation" principles apply, but declined to add a separate future-prospects amount since the existing award already captured this, leaving her family's compensation at the previously assessed figure.

Lesson Learnt

Passengers injured or killed in an accident cannot be held responsible for the negligence of the vehicle they were travelling in merely because that vehicle was being driven by someone else; and courts must value a housewife's unpaid contribution to the household as real income when calculating compensation.

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

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