SC: Married, employed children can claim accident compensation

The Supreme Court has ruled that married and gainfully employed children are entitled to seek compensation as legal representatives under the Motor Vehicles Act, even without financial dependency on the deceased parent. The bench of Justices N Kotiswar Singh and N V Anjaria held that every legal representative who suffers on account of a motor accident death has a remedy for compensation under different heads.

The court clarified that consortium is not limited to spousal loss but includes parental and filial consortium. In the case of Shaik Janimiya, who died in a 2012 Hyderabad accident, the wife and three children aged 18-21 claimed compensation. The tribunal awarded Rs 8.44 lakh, enhanced by the High Court to Rs 11,00,672; the Supreme Court further modified it, holding the children entitled to parental consortium of Rs 40,000 each under the Pranay Sethi precedent.

The judgment relied on earlier decisions including Manjuri Bera vs Oriental Insurance and National Insurance Company vs Birender, underlining that devolution of the deceased's estate, not the absence of dependency, determines the maintainability of the claim. Source: deccanherald.com and livelaw.in.