A girl, who lost her father in a road accident when she was nine years old, was awarded compensation by the Thane Motor Accident Claims Tribunal after 12 years of the incident.
Dakshati Jain’s father Rajkumar Jain, who ran a private business, was killed when a truck knocked down his car on the Mhape-Turbhe road in April 2000.
Citing that Rajkumar was the sole bread earner of the family, the girl, whose mother had expired one year prior to her father’s accident, claimed Rs 15 lakh as compensation.
After hearing the petition, the court held that the owner of the truck and the insurance company National Insurance were jointly liable to pay the compensation.
The court held that the truck driver was at fault in driving the vehicle rashly and negligently.
The court relied on the submissions of the tax consultant of the deceased and assessing his income to be Rs 56,000 per year, it arrived at a compensation of Rs 8.40 lakhs with a multiplier of 15, considering the age of the deceased and the claimant. The court also allowed Rs 2,000 towards funeral expenses and an additional Rs 5,000 for loss of life.
On the total compensation, the court ordered payment of interest at the rate of seven percent per annum till the date of realisation, hence the total sum to be provided to the girl amounted to Rs 12 lakhs.
Both the truck owner and the insurance company were not represented in the case and the then judge B P Patil passed an ex-parte order based on the submissions by the claimant’s counsel.
As the insurance company did not honour the order of the court and did not make any payment towards compensation, the claimant moved an application and obtained an attachment order on the insurance company and the truck owner.
Later, the insurance company deposited the money in the court but moved an application pleading that the amount should not be released, without specifying any reason for it.
The claimant’s counsel argued that the order issued by a court awarding a compensation cannot be stayed by itself.
Upholding the same, the court released the amount to the girl last week.
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http://www.financialexpress.com/news/national-insurance-to-pay-rs-15l-to-girl/1011285/0
