Major, earning children entitled to compensation for death of parent in motor accident: Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court

The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court recently held that even if children claiming compensation under the Motor Vehicle Act are major and earning on death of deceased parent, they are entitled to claim compensation on the ground of 'loss of dependency' [Jamal Din v New India Assurance Co. Ltd.].

Justice MA Chowdhary found that the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) misdirected itself while calculating and granting compensation to the claimants in two separate claim petitions decided by a common judgment.

"It is held that claimants, even being major and earning, at the time of death of their deceased mothers are entitled to the loss of dependency, besides other heads under the conventional heads of loss of estate, funeral expenses and loss of parental consortium", said the court.

With these observations, the High Court modified the compensation amount from ₹1,85,000 to ₹5,45,876 and ₹3,10,000 to ₹18,02,000.

The claim arose from an accident of a vehicle due to alleged rash and negligent driving as a result of which two passengers Zeba Begum and Shahmal Begum were seriously injured and passed away.

The legal heirs of both the deceased filed the claims seeking compensation for their death.

The claimants before the High Court stated that the tribunal did not decide the case in accordance with law and granted a meager amount of ₹50,000 as compensation, which was not just and fair.

It was argued that refusal of loss of dependency was against the law laid down by the Supreme Court.

On hearing the parties, the Court opined that the tribunal's finding that petitioners in both the claim petitions being major and earning sons were not entitled to compensation was an incorrect view of the matter.

"It is settled law that the legal representatives of the deceased have a right to apply for compensation and it must necessarily follow that even major and earning sons of deceased being legal representatives have a right to apply for compensation and it would be bounded duty of the Tribunal to consider the application irrespective of the fact whether the concerned legal representative was fully dependent on deceased or not, to limit the claim towards the conventional head only," the Court said.

Advocate GS Thakur appeared for petitioner while the respondents were represented by Advocate Amrit Sarin.

[Read Judgment]