Skin colour can't decide compensation, says HC

Social status or colour of skin of a victim is immaterial while deciding the compensation for injury in a road accident, the Delhi High Court has said. HT reports.

Social status or colour of skin of a victim is immaterial while deciding the compensation for injury in a road accident, the Delhi High Court has said.

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The high court rapped a tribunal for granting excessive monetary relief to a woma on the ground that she was a foreigner.

"The observation made by the tribunal that the compensation for pain and suffering has to be in accordance with the status of a person is anti-Constitutional. The pain and sufferings suffered by a poor man for same injury cannot be considered less than the pain and suffering of a rich man," Justice S.N. Dhingra said.

"If the courts award more compensation to foreigners because of the colour of skin or because of their being rich and award less compensation to Indians because they are poor, that amounts to travesty of justice," the HC said.

The Motor Accident Tribunal had awarded a compensation of more than Rs 50 lakh to a German woman who lost an arm in an accident here. Out of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 2 lakh was given for her pain and sufferings.

The high court found that the amount was excessive as in many other similar cases much less amount was given as compensation.

"The Tribunal seems to have been guided more by the fact that the claimant in this case was a foreign national and her status was different from that of an Indian citizen.