[Motor Accident case] Bombay High Court enhances compensation for disabled businessman

The Bombay High Court recently enhanced the compensation payable to a motor accident victim by holding the insurance company liable to pay ₹5 lakh each under the heads of 'loss of amenities' and 'loss of expectation of life', in addition to compensation of ₹52 lakh already awarded by the Motor Accidents Claim Tribunal (MACT) [Manager, National Insurance Co. Ltd. vs Nilesh Bhandari]..Single-judge Justice Bharati Dangre observed that a young and prosperous businessman's life which was on the right track suddenly got crippled because of the accident and the Motor Vehicles Act is a beneficial legislation and intended to provide solace to the victim or to the family of the victim.The Court was hearing a plea filed by the National Insurance Company challenging the orders of a Motor Accidents Claim Tribunal (MACT) ordering it to pay ₹52.66 lakhs as a compensation to Nilesh Bhandari, who met with an accident in June 2005 and sustained serious injuries making him 83 per cent disabled.In his claim filed before the MACT at Baramati, Bhandari had sought a compensation to the tune of ₹1.50 crore. He highlighted the fact that after being hit by the offending vehicle he sustained serious injuries because of which he had to be hospitalised in six different hospitals for nearly 400 days and had to undergo around four surgeries to survive including a hip replacement surgery.Bhandari, a gas agency owner, sought ₹1.50 crore compensation to meet his medical expenses apart from the fees to be paid to an attendant, who would accompany him daily..The MACT had awarded ₹23 lakh for medical expenses, ₹10 lakh under the heads of i) arranging an attendant along with future medical treatment and ii) for pain and sufferings and unable to lead a normal life.It also awarded ₹19.57 lakh for loss of future earnings and prospects.The insurance company took exception to the award on the ground that Bhandari was driving rashly and that the offending vehicle could not have been blamed for the accident.However, the High Court on appeal, did not consider the issue as the company only sought to challenge the amount of compensation and not the findings of the MACT..The High Court noted that the Motor Vehicles Act is a beneficial legislation and provides for some solace to a victim or to the family of the victim who is a sufferer, when the bread-earner is disabled or succumbs to an accident.In the present case, the Court noted that the victim was only 24 years old when he met with the accident and he has been left totally impaired. "The claimant (Bhandari), barely aged 24, at the time when he met with an accident, has been struggling for his survival and overcome his disabilities and the disability incurred by him which resulted in replacement of his hip, has totally impaired his movements and function of his entire body. He may have managed to survive, but his fruitful years are lost, spent in and out of the hospital under a hope of overcoming the disability and restoring himself in a position of a young enterprising business person, with dreams in his eyes," Justice Dangre observed."No amount of compensation can bring his years back nor offer any solace for his sufferings, and but for the accident, and the injury sustained therein, he would have led a happy and healthy life. Though he may somehow manage to engage himself in some gainful activity/avocation, his life will never remain the same. He was prosperous businessman and his life was on the right track but account of the accident, he lost his dream and has become crippled," the judge added.The bench, therefore, said that because of his sufferings, Bhandari deserves a compensation of ₹5 lakh each for loss of amenities and loss of expectation of life in addition to what was already awarded by MACT..[Read Judgment]