Nishka Srinivas Veluvali
Published On: January 27, 2022 at 19:12 IST
The Bombay High Court held that the applicant would be entitled to compensation on the grounds of loss of future earnings even though the applicant has not suffered loss of total income due to permanent disability.
Consequently, the High Court upgraded the compensation awarded to the Appellant (Claimant) from Rs. 50,000 to Rs, 2,70,000.
The High Court was considering the Appeal from an impugned Order of the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal that had awarded the compensation of Rs. 50,000 to the Appellant (original Claimant) for the 20% permanent disability bore due to a motor accident.
The Tribunal in its impugned Order of October 25, 2010 had awarded a total Rs. 70,000 compensation that was further bifurcated as Rs.20,000 for medical expense and Rs.50,000 for the disability bore by the applicant.
The High Court Judgment authored by Justice NJ Jamadar, while observing whether Tribunal was correct for awarding compensation stated that, “A compensation can be said to be “just” if it has the element of restoring the claimant to the position prior to the accident, albeit to the extent possible, in full measure. The tribunals and the Courts are expected to be alive to the fact that a person is not only to be compensated for the physical injury but also for the loss, which such injury entails, namely, inability to earn as much as the injured used to earn or could have earned, inability to lead the life to the fullest and not in the least the inability to enjoy the usual amenities and joys which the life offers”.
The High Court further asserted that in order to decide upon the “just” compensation, the Courts have to look over the two wide categories that is Pecuniary Damages and non – pecuniary damages which the Tribunal did not rely on before awarding the compensation.
The Tribunal noted that there was no loss of income as the applicant would be able to earn substantial part of the year. Contradicting to this, the High Court observed that the compensation should be awarded for the loss of future income even though the applicant did not suffer the loss of the total income due to permanent disability.
Hence, Justice Jamadar referring to some previous Judgements stated that the compensation awarded to the Applicant would be for the loss of income as well as the Non – Pecuniary losses.
The High Court thus enhanced the compensation awarded by the impugned Order that is from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 2,70,000.