Delhi HC hikes amount of compensation to parents of road accident victim

The Delhi High Court on Saturday enhanced the claim of compensation by the parents of a man who died at the age of 23 in 2008 after as he was hit by a dumper truck.

The single-judge bench of Justice J. R. Midha observed, “Even if the parents are not dependent on their children at the time of the accident, they will certainly be dependent, both financially and emotionally, upon their children at the later stage of their life, as the children were dependent upon their parents in their initial years. It would therefore be unfair as well as inequitable to deny compensation for loss of dependency to a parent, who may not be dependent on his/her child at the time of accident per se but would become dependent at his/her later age.”

The Court said, “Section 125 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973; Section 20 of Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956, and Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 casts an obligation on children to maintain their parents. These legislations recognize the legal rights of parents to be maintained by their children.”

The bench calculated the loss of dependency as Rs 6,24,607.20 further adding Rs 40,000 towards loss of love and affection and Rs 15,000 towards funeral expenses as awarded by the Claims Tribunal, making it a total compensation of Rs 6,80,000 with an interest of 9% per annum from the date of institution of the original petition, 2010 which enhanced the amount from earlier award of Claims Tribunal of Rs 2,42,382.16.
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