The Supreme Court has warned the courts below against deciding the accident claim cases in half-hearted manner, saying the award of compensation was the only mitigating factor for a person disabled for life.
Citing rulings on human aspect of the compensation, a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly said “no amount of compensation can restore the physical frame of accident victim.”
The bench criticised the Karnataka high court for deciding a case of 50-year-old mason from Bengaluru only on one aspect — damage suffered due to 20 per cent disability — but completely “ignoring” to calculate the award it for future loss due to physical handicap caused to him.
While the accident claims tribunal has awarded Rs 1.55 lakh to B.T. Krishnappa with 7 per cent interest with it also calculating the damage on the basis of loss suffered, the HC increased it only marginally to Rs 1.89 lakh while reducing the interest to 6 per cent.
“This court finds that incapacity or disability to earn livelihood would have to be viewed not only in present but in future on reasonable expectancies and taking into account the deprival or earnings of a conceivable period,” the bench said.
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Panchayat diktat to dalit couple
Asit Jolly
Chandigarh
Inspired perhaps by politicians’ support for the upper caste khaps, a dalit panchayat in Haryana’s Rohtak district has ordered a young couple to annul their recent nuptials failing which they would be forcibly ousted from their home and village.
The damning diktat that ordered the couple and their families to comply within the next ten days was issued just two days after the wedding in Samain Village of the highly caste conscious Meham area. Kulwant and Sushila were married on Sunday.
Amazingly, just like the jat khaps the dalit panchayat’s objections to the liaison center around gotra (clan or kinship group).
The elders said the marriage could not be permitted because Kulwant the groom had wed a girl from the Bahamnia gotra, many members of which were already residents of Samain. “The girl Sushila cannot be considered a daughter-in-law. She could at best be treated as a niece of this village,” decreed the panches. They said the couple must immediately annul their marriage or face ouster from the village.
However, unlike many jat youngsters who quietly accede to such kangaroo justice, the young Dalit groom seems to be in a combative mood.