The Supreme Court on Tuesday awarded a boy ₹49.93 lakh as compensation for the road accident he suffered as a five-year-old, leaving him a paraplegic.
A Bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V. Ramasubramanian said the boy had lost not only his childhood but his entire adult life. The court, in its judgment, said though money could not possibly make up for the boy’s physical and mental loss, it was all the court could order to recompense the boy for his trauma.
Besides the compensation, the court ordered the insurance firm to pay the annual interest of 7.5% as ordered by the Accidents Tribunal. The interest has to be paid from the date of the tribunal order. The total amount would go well past ₹50 lakh mark and may be somewhere in the neighbourhood of ₹1 crore.
Mental, physical loss
“The determination of damages in personal injury cases is not easy. The mental and physical loss cannot be computed in terms of money but there is no other way to compensate the victim except by payment of just compensation,” the Bench said.
The top court was hearing an appeal filed by the boy challenging the order of the Karnataka High Court awarding a compensation of ₹13.46 lakh as against ₹18.24 lakh awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal.
