Motor accident compensation may reflect notified minimum wages and reasonable unreceipted hospitalisation expenses.

The appellants, sons of the deceased, appealed under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, seeking enhancement of compensation awarded for their mother’s death following a road accident on 3 March 2018.

The Claims Tribunal awarded Rs. 16,45,043, assessing her monthly income at Rs. 5,000 and making awards for medical expenses and related treatment costs.

The High Court condoned the 287-day delay in filing the appeal and dispensed with respondent No. 4, the previous owner of the vehicle.

Whether the Claims Tribunal erred in assessing the deceased’s monthly income at Rs. 5,000 rather than the applicable minimum-wage rate of Rs. 7,930.

Whether the amounts awarded for medical expenses, attendant charges, special diet, and transportation required enhancement in light of the deceased’s 41-day hospitalisation.

Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, provides for an appeal against an award of a Claims Tribunal.

In assessing dependency compensation, the Court relied on National Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Pranay Sethi, Sarla Verma v. Delhi Transport Corporation, and Magma General Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Nanu Ram, applying the relevant principles concerning future prospects, deductions for personal expenses, multiplier, and conventional heads.

The Court also applied the Chhattisgarh minimum-wage notification to determine the deceased’s monthly income.

It recognised that hospitalisation and treatment may entail reasonable out-of-pocket expenses for which formal receipts may not be available.

The Court found that the applicable minimum-wage notification supported assessing the deceased’s monthly income at Rs. 7,930, rather than Rs. 5,000.

It otherwise upheld the Tribunal’s assessment of 25% future prospects, a one-third deduction for personal expenses, multiplier of 13, and Rs. 1,21,000 under conventional heads.

Given the 41-day hospitalisation and the likelihood of miscellaneous treatment-related expenditure, the Court increased the awards for medical expenses to Rs. 9,00,000, attendant charges to Rs. 40,000, special diet to Rs. 40,000, and transportation to Rs. 40,000.

Total compensation was enhanced from Rs. 16,45,043 to Rs. 21,71,900, leaving an additional Rs. 5,26,857 payable with interest at 6% per annum from the date the claim application was filed until realisation.

The remaining conditions of the Tribunal’s award were left intact.

The Registry was directed to communicate the enhanced amount to the claimants in Hindi.