An insurance company which challenged the compensation of Rs 11.39 lakh awarded by a Motor Vehicle Claims Tribunal in a highway accident case has been ordered by the Karnataka High Court (HC) to pay round Rs 45 lakh to the sufferer.
The National Insurance Company approached the HC with an attraction towards the 2015 judgment of the Motor Vehicle Tribunal which ordered it to pay compensation of Rs 11,39,340 to 1 Alwin Lobo, an engineering pupil.
Lobo was travelling along with his brother on a motorcycle which was concerned in an accident with an auto-rickshaw. He sustained extreme accidents and spent a number of months in hospital. He sustained “permanent injury” on his head as properly.
The compensation awarded was challenged by the company which claimed that driver Lokesh Gowda was a neighbour of Lobo and, to assist them get compensation, the accident was made up.
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It claimed that solely the two-wheeler was concerned within the accident and never the auto-rickshaw. Being the insurer of the auto-rickshaw, it was ordered to pay compensation.
Justice H P Sandesh, who heard the petition, in his current judgment, stated: “In order to come to a conclusion that it was a case of fraud and implication of the vehicle, no ample material is placed before the Court. When such being the case, I do not find any ground to reverse the findings of the Tribunal…”
Though the sufferer had not appealed for enhancement of compensation, the HC invoked a rule from the Civil Procedure Code.
“In an appeal filed by the insurance company, the Court can invoke order 41, Rule 33 of CPC, if injustice is caused to the victim or deceased while awarding compensation,” it stated.
The HC discovered causes to reinforce the compensation, an important being the pinnacle harm of the sufferer.
“While the claimant has sustained a number of injuries and the doctor is also examined before the Tribunal, the same is not accepted by the Tribunal. The petitioner has permanent physical disability at 65 per cent. But, without assigning any reason, the Tribunal has reduced the disability to 25 per cent. In a case of head injury, the disability cannot be converted as like an injury to limb and the Court has to take the actual disability,” the HC famous.
Raising the compensation on varied heads, the HC ordered, “The claimant is entitled for compensation of Rs 44,92,140 as against Rs.11,39,340 awarded by the Tribunal.”
However, the curiosity payable for the quantity from 2009 was diminished from eight per cent to 6 per cent paying attention to the rate of interest prevailing in nationalised banks.
