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United India Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Indiro Devi & Ors.

Special Leave Petition (Civil) · 2018 INSC 575Decided 3 Jul 2018
Special Leave Petition (Civil) Nos. 7104-7105 of 2016
Justice S.A. Bobde · Justice L. Nageswara Rao

Background

A 39-year-old employee of the Food Corporation of India died in a road accident when the three-wheeler he was riding in was hit by a rashly driven truck. His family's compensation claim turned on a dispute over his true income: his employer's salary certificate showed about Rs. 8,848 per month, but his income tax returns showed a much higher annual income. The Claims Tribunal relied only on the salary certificate, but the High Court relied on the tax returns instead and substantially raised the compensation to about Rs. 44 lakh.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a tribunal is not legally required to rely solely on an employer's salary certificate when calculating a deceased person's income for compensation purposes, especially where unchallenged income tax returns show additional income (possibly from other sources). The Tribunal had wrongly placed the burden on the claimants to "explain" the discrepancy between the two income figures, when the tax return evidence itself was credible and undisputed. Finding no error in the High Court's approach of using the income tax figures with a future-prospects increase and an appropriate multiplier, the Court dismissed the insurance company's special leave petitions and upheld the enhanced compensation.

Lesson Learnt

In motor accident compensation claims, income tax returns can be relied upon to establish a deceased person's true income even if it is higher than what an employer's salary certificate shows: claimants are not obligated to explain away the difference if the tax evidence is otherwise credible.

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

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