NEW DELHI: Criticising the traditional judicial mindset of doling out
compensation to the kin of victims and those injured in motor vehicle accidents, the
Supreme Court has ruled that award of compensation is an entitlement under law which must be commensurate with the pain and suffering of such victims.
“In a discourse of rights, they constitute entitlements under law. Our conversations about law must shift from paternalistic subordination of the individual to an assertion of enforceable rights as intrinsic to human dignity,” said a bench of Chief Justice
Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.
Writing the judgement for the bench, Justice Chandrachud set the tone of judicial computation of just compensation to the kin of accident victims and those injured by saying, “The measure of compensation must reflect a genuine attempt of the law to restore dignity of being. Our yardsticks of compensation should not be so abysmal as to lead one to question whether our law values human life. If it does, as it must, it must provide a realistic recompense for the pain of loss and the trauma of suffering.”
The ruling came on Tuesday on a petition filed by one Jagdish, a carpenter by profession, who lost both his hands and suffered serious disability in an accident involving his motorcycle and a dumper in November, 2011. Motor
Accidents Claims Tribunal at Kota, Rajasthan, awarded him a compensation of Rs 12.8L . The Rajashthan HC enhanced it by Rs 2.2 lakh.
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