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Sameem Begum v. K. Venkat Swamy

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 864Decided 14 Aug 2026
Civil Appeal (arising out of SLP (C) No. 18553 of 2023)
Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh · Justice N.V. Anjaria · Justice S.V.N. Bhatti

Background

Shaik Janimiya, a 48-year-old private security guard, was fatally struck by a car while walking in Malkajgiri in 2012. His wife and three children sought Rs. 9,00,000 in compensation; the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal awarded Rs. 8,44,000, and the Telangana High Court enhanced this to Rs. 11,00,672. The family appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the deceased's monthly income had been under-assessed and that the amount awarded for "parental consortium" to the children was inadequate or missing altogether.

Decision Breakdown

The Court left the income assessment (Rs. 7,000 per month, based on the employer's testimony) undisturbed, finding no error there. However, it found that both the Tribunal and the High Court had failed to properly account for consortium: the Tribunal gave only Rs. 5,000 to the wife and nothing to the children, while the High Court's enhanced award still bundled a mere Rs. 77,000 across all conventional heads. Relying on binding precedent (National Insurance Co. v. Pranay Sethi and Magma General Insurance v. Nanu Ram), the Court held that "consortium" is a compendious concept covering spousal, parental and filial consortium, and that each dependent family member, the wife (spousal) and each of the three children (parental), is entitled to a separate fixed sum, currently Rs. 40,000 each, increased by 10% every three years, here totalling Rs. 48,400 per claimant. The Court also raised the funeral expenses and loss-of-estate heads to Rs. 15,000 each. This recalculation raised total compensation to Rs. 12,47,272, with the insurer directed to pay the additional Rs. 1,46,600 (with 7.5% interest from the date of filing) within six weeks, split equally among the four claimants.

Lesson Learnt

In fatal motor-accident claims, "loss of consortium" is not a single lump sum for the family: each dependent (spouse, and separately each child) is legally entitled to their own consortium amount, and courts must apply this per-claimant, inflation-adjusted formula rather than awarding one token composite figure.

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

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