HC raises payout to ₹1.31 crore from ₹10 lakh for kin of deceased maritime engineer

Deshmukh died on June 26, 2009, less than a week after joining the firm, when the jeep he was travelling in collided with a stationary truck while commuting from Bhubaneswar to Paradeep

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has increased compensation for maritime engineer Rajesh Deshmukh, who died in a 2009 road accident in Odisha, to ₹1.31 crore from ₹10 lakh, ruling that the Tribunal wrongly assessed his income.

HC raises payout to ₹1.31 crore from ₹10 lakh for kin of deceased maritime engineer

A single-judge bench of Justice Jitendra Jain held that the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) had incorrectly pegged Deshmukh’s monthly income at ₹8,000, citing the absence of a formal contract with Samson Maritime Ltd, at the time of the accident.

Deshmukh died on June 26, 2009, less than a week after joining the firm, when the jeep he was travelling in collided with a stationary truck while commuting from Bhubaneswar to Paradeep.

Following his death, his family approached the MACT, which awarded his family members ₹10 lakh with 7.5% annual interest in August 2014. Challenging the award, the family moved the high court and argued that Deshmukh earned around ₹1.6 lakh per month, yet the Tribunal granted only a meagre sum of ₹ 8,000.

Justice Jain accepted their contention, noting that Deshmukh had 20 years of experience and that evidence showed Samson Maritime Ltd had agreed to pay him ₹1.6 lakh per month. It added that even without a concluded contract, records showed he had earlier earned ₹2.5 lakh for 40 days’ work with Herald Maritime Services.

Fixing his income at ₹1.25 lakh per month after tax, the court raised the total compensation to ₹1.31 crore with 7.5% interest from the date the petition was filed. It directed The National Insurance Company Ltd, insurer of the offending vehicle, to deposit the amount within three months, allowing the family of the deceased to withdraw it.