# Gauhati High Court: Children losing parent in accident entitled to parental consortium 2026-08-22T10:50:10+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet The Gauhati High Court has enhanced motor accident compensation to over Rs 8 lakh for the kin of a 44-year-old man who died in a road crash, ruling that the deceased's two sons are entitled to 'parental consortium', a head of damages not granted by the lower tribunal. Justice Kaushik Goswami held that the tribunal had wrongly omitted future prospects and consortium payments as laid down in the Supreme Court's Pranay Sethi judgment. The original award of Rs 5.89 lakh included only Rs 50,000 towards loss of consortium for the widow, with nothing for the two sons. The high court recalculated the annual income at Rs 75,000, applied a multiplier of 14 after deducting one-third for personal expenses, and added Rs 48,400 each for spousal and parental consortium. The total enhanced compensation came to Rs 8,81,500. The insurance company has been directed to deposit the balance amount within six weeks. The appeal was filed under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 against the 2016 award of the Additional District Judge, Kamrup (M), Guwahati. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The Gauhati High Court's ruling reinforces the principle that 'consortium' is not limited to the spouse, children who lose a parent also have a distinct legal right to compensation for loss of parental care, love and guidance. This follows the Supreme Court's expansive reading in Pranay Sethi (2017), which standardised consortium awards at Rs 40,000 per claimant, later enhanced to Rs 48,400. The key takeaway for claimants is that tribunals must explicitly award parental consortium, if omitted, a high court can correct it on appeal. Watch for the insurance company's compliance within six weeks, as non-deposit could trigger execution proceedings. ## Coverage - livelaw.in Straight factual report of court order with no editorial framing or bias. This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Gauhati High Court, Motor Vehicles Act, parental consortium, Pranay Sethi Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/gauhati-high-court-children-losing-parent-in-accident-entitled-to-parental-consortium/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/gauhati-high-court-children-losing-parent-in-accident-entitled-to-parental-consortium/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/