New Delhi, Jul 3 The Delhi High Court has awarded compensation of more than Rs 1 crore to the kin of a fourth-year engineering student at Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, who died in a road accident in 2017.
The court also awarded over Rs 84 lakh as compensation to the kin of a third-year student who also died in the same accident.
Justice Anish Dayal passed the judgment on pleas by the kin of the two deceased students seeking enhancement of the compensation awarded to them by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal in September 2020.
Senior advocate Sumeet Verma appeared for the family of the deceased persons in the high court.
The tribunal awarded Rs 38.50 lakh and Rs 83.86 lakh to the kin of Prabhleen Kaur and Vinay Khurana.
The accident happened in February 2017 when the two were travelling to Delhi in a car driven by a mutual friend.
It was alleged that the car, driven at a very high speed in a rash and negligent manner, hit the railing on the divider, resulting in the demise of the two students.
The insurance company, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, filed appeals seeking a reduction of the compensation awarded by the tribunal.
In the judgement passed on July 1, the court observed that both deceased persons were bright and meritorious students who were studying at a premium engineering college after scoring good marks in the JEE examination.
It observed that the FIR and chargesheet filed in the case clearly established that the offending vehicle had struck the road divider with considerable force, resulting in the death of the two students,
The court said that although the car was under the exclusive control of the driver, neither he nor the owner of the car entered the witness box to explain how the accident occurred or to rebut the allegation of rash and negligent driving.
It rejected the driver's stand in the written submissions that he lost the car's balance due to sunlight reflection, stating that the explanation was "implausible", and that the surrounding facts were sufficient to draw an inference of negligence against him.
Considering Khurana's job offer from a government firm and Kaur's paid internship at a pharmaceutical company, the court held that their kin were entitled to enhanced compensation.
It said that 2017, the year of the accident, has to be taken as the watershed year for the deceased regarding the income they could have possibly earned for compensation computation.
"Accordingly, the compensation in case of Vinay Khurana is enhanced by Rs 23,85,800/. Accordingly, the compensation in case of Prabhleen Kaur is enhanced by Rs. 45,82,600/," ordered the court, making Khurana's kin entitled to total compensation of Rs 1,07,71,800 and Kaur's kin to Rs 84,32,600," the court said.
The court took into account the lapse of nine years since the accident, and six years since the first order was passed in 2020, to order commensurate interest on the compensation.
"Considering the long pendency, it would be appropriate that the interest applicable on the original compensation awarded by the Tribunal shall continue to be 9 per cent per annum. It is clarified that the interest of 6.75 per cent per annum shall be applicable only on the enhanced compensation," it said.
