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Sachin Yallappa Usulkar v. Vijayata

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 290Decided 28 Feb 2025
C.A. No.-003594-003595 - 2025 (arising out of SLP(C) Nos. 1970-1971 of 2023)
Mrs. Justice B.V. Nagarathna · Justice Satish Chandra Sharma

Background

A Bolero vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian, Vijay Jumnalkar, and an FIR named the vehicle owner's minor son as the driver. The deceased's widow and disabled son claimed compensation from the vehicle's owner, and both the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal and the Karnataka High Court held the minor responsible, awarding and then enhancing compensation, with the insurer directed to pay and then recover the amount from the owner. The vehicle owner and his family appealed, arguing that the minor's father, not the minor, was actually driving at the time.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court re-examined the witness testimony (permissible even under Article 136 where findings are perverse) and found that multiple witnesses, including the deceased's own friend who was present at the scene, admitted in cross-examination that the minor's father was driving, not the minor. It held that the Tribunal and High Court had committed a "grave error" in concluding the minor was the driver, since no credible evidence supported that finding. The Court upheld the compensation amount itself but absolved the minor of involvement, ruling the insurance company must pay the claimants directly without any right to recover the sum from the vehicle's owner.

Lesson Learnt

Courts must carefully scrutinize eyewitness cross-examination rather than accepting a chargesheet's initial account at face value, even in accident compensation cases, findings on who was actually at fault must rest on the weight of the actual evidence, not on unchallenged assumptions carried over from the FIR.

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

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