Madras High Court directs Tamil Nadu Transport Co. to pay ₹1.04 crore compensation to kin of man crushed to death by bus

The Madras High Court recently directed the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation to pay ₹1.4 crores as compensation to the kin of a 33-year-old man who was crushed to death by a bus at a bus stand in Dharampuri district in 2016..In a judgment passed on July 17, a bench of Justices Nisha Banu and D Bharatha Chakravarthy enhanced the compensation amount of ₹82 lakh that had been awarded to the victim’s family by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (MACT) to ₹1.04 crores after taking into account the monthly remuneration the deceased had been earning before his death and other significant factors..The State argued that the victim himself was responsible for the accident since instead of standing in the bus bay, he was negligently standing in the middle of the bus stand.This argument was, however, rejected by the Court.Additional Advocate General P Kumaresan, who appeared for the Transport Corporation, also argued that the MACT should have factored in the contributory negligence of the deceased and deducted an amount from the total compensation payable..Advocate S Sathiaseelan, who appeared for the victim’s family, opposed the State’s submission and requested that the compensation amount be enhanced..The High Court held that the State’s argument on the victim’s negligence could not be sustained since in India, unlike in some other countries, people entered a bus stand from all possible directions and there were hardly any designated platforms or pathways to segregate such entry. Besides, any deduction on account of contributory negligence can be limited only to 20 percent which had already been considered by the Tribunal, the Court noted..“To an extent, if the rules in our bus stand are strictly followed by providing access only to the platforms and not to the bus stand in general, this argument can be appreciated. But in the Indian context, it is common knowledge that the passengers enter the bus stand and the platform from all directions and so far, the bus stands are not provided with busbays with access only through subways or overhead platforms with due gates, which is the case in railway stations and airports and it is the case which is done in bus stands in many other countries. Therefore, the said argument cannot be accepted. Secondly, even if a contributory negligence is to be considered, it can be considered only upto the level of 20%,” the Court said.It, therefore, directed the State to pay within six weeks, the enhanced compensation amount after deducting the sum that had already been paid to the victim’s family. .[Read Judgment]