The Supreme Court on Tuesday has allowed the appeal filed by Savitha, a housewife, who survived motor accident more than a decade ago but it left her permanently disabled. She has appealed against the inadequacy of compensation granted to her in a motor accident case. She had suffered nine injuries out of which seven were grievous in nature.
A two-Judge Bench presided by Justice R F Nariman and Justice Navin Sinha accepted the contention of the appellant that her whole body disability was medically assessed at 32%, but the Tribunal, by hairsplitting the expert evidence assessed the whole body disability at 15% and The High Court for inexplicable reasons opined that it would be reasonable to determine the whole body disability at 20%.
The Supreme Court held that “The appellant is therefore entitled to a total compensation of Rs.7,54,910/¬ along with interest at the rate of six per cent from the date of petition till the date of realization.”
Facts of the case is that the appellant while travelling in a bus belonging to K.S.R.T.C. Karnataka on 25.12.2008 met with an accident when a lorry rashly and negligently dashed against the bus and she suffered nine injuries out of which seven were grievous in nature. The Orthopedic Surgeon who operated upon the appellant, deposed that she had suffered 32 per cent total body disability and was not capable of doing household work. The Tribunal awarded a total compensation of Rs.5,82,500/¬ with interest at the rate of 6%, redetermined by the High Court in appeal at Rs.6,50,350/-.
Read the judgement here;
8713_2018_34_1501_22594_Judgement_16-Jun-2020-India Legal Bureau