New Delhi, Oct 18 A Delhi tribunal has awarded a compensation of over Rs 1.43 crore to the family of a 59-year-old DDA executive engineer, who died after a car he was travelling in rammed into a stationary bus in 2022.
Motor Accident Claims Tribunal’s (MACT’s) Presiding Officer Abhilash Malhotra, in an order passed on October 13, directed the car’s insurer, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, to deposit the compensation amount.
According to the plea filed by the deceased’s wife, Jain was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car on September 17, 2022, when it hit the rear of a bus parked at a stop near a CNG pump on Outer Ring Road in R K Puram here.
He was taken to Safdarjung Hospital and later shifted to the Indian Spinal Injuries Hospital in Vasant Kunj, where he died on September 20, 2022, it said.
According to the plea, the car driver, Gulfam, who held only a learner’s licence, was learning how to drive from Jain, when he pressed the accelerator instead of the brake.
The tribunal noted that the car’s owner, Rehmeena Khatun, who is the driver’s mother, admitted in her testimony that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) engineer had engaged Gulfam to drop and pick him up from office and paid him Rs 20,000 per month for it.
The tribunal said this showed the car was being used on hire and Jain was a paying passenger, not a driving instructor.
“It is clear that the deceased was a passenger on hire basis in a car and he cannot be considered as a trainer. Therefore, respondent 1 (driver) was negligent in driving the vehicle without assistance of a qualified person having permanent driving license,” the tribunal said.
“Even in case the plea of respondent 1 is believed that he pressed the accelerator inadvertently instead of the brake, the element of negligence cannot be taken out,” it added.
The MACT said it stands proved “on the touchstone of preponderance of probabilities that the aforesaid accident took place due to rash driving of the insured/ offending vehicle.”
The insurance company had argued that it should be exonerated because the driver held only a learner’s licence, no “L” sign was displayed on the car, no licensed person was guiding him, and the car, a private vehicle, was being used for hire.
While accepting that the policy conditions had been breached, the tribunal applied the pay and recover principle, under which an insurer must first pay third-party victims and can then recover the amount from the insured.
It held the driver, the owner, driver and the insurer jointly and severally liable for paying the compensation, but granted the insurance company the right to recover the entire amount from them.
To arrive at the compensation amount, the tribunal took Jain’s monthly income, after tax, based on his July 2022 salary slip, and added 15 per cent for future prospects in view of his age. After deducting one-third for personal expenses, it calculated the amount for loss of dependency as around Rs 1.4 crore.
The tribunal then added compensation for other heads, including loss of consortium and estate, funeral expenses and interest.
The tribunal clarified that its findings on rash driving were limited to the compensation proceedings and would not affect the criminal case against the driver. The matter will next come up for compliance on November 16.
(PTI News)
