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Rina Rani Mallick v. Susim Kanti Mohanty

Special Leave Petition (Civil) · 2025 INSC 602Decided 30 Apr 2025
Special Leave Petition (C) No. 17267 of 2024
Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia · Justice K. Vinod Chandran

Background

A four-year-old child was travelling in a bus with her parents when it collided with a tractor, resulting in a below-knee amputation and 55% permanent disability. The Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal awarded compensation of about Rs. 20 lakh, and the Orissa High Court later enhanced it by Rs. 7 lakh, bringing the total to over Rs. 27 lakh with interest. The child's mother, as petitioner, sought a further enhancement of the compensation from the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, holding there was no scope for further enhancement. It relied on its own precedents (Mallikarjun and Kumari Kiran) which set a graded scale of non-pecuniary compensation for child accident victims based on disability percentage, since children have no "income" to compensate for, courts instead award fixed amounts recognising pain, loss of enjoyment of life, and the need to help the child develop despite the disability. Comparing the amount already awarded (which was substantially higher than in those precedent cases) against the fixed non-pecuniary benchmark of Rs. 4 lakh for 55% disability, the Court found the existing award more than adequate.

Lesson Learnt

In accident claims involving children, compensation isn't calculated the same way as for adult wage-earners; courts use fixed, disability-linked benchmarks for pain and loss of a normal childhood, and once an award already exceeds those benchmarks, further enhancement is unlikely to succeed.

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

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