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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court recently observed that not taking due care while driving a vehicle and in particular overtaking, either stationary or moving vehicle, would also amount to rash and negligent driving.

A bench of Justice Gaurang Kanth observed, “Not taking due care while driving the vehicle and in particular overtaking, either stationary or moving vehicle also would amount to rash and negligent driving. Hence, this Court is in complete agreement with the learned Claims Tribunal and the deceased is guilty of contributory negligence to the extent of 20%”.

The court was hearing a plea by a family member of a motorcycle rider who died after colliding with a DTC bus parked in the middle of the road without any signal or indicator on the night of July 22, 2012.

The Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal had granted Rs. 17,49,491 to the family of the deceased as compensation with an interest @7.5% per annum from the date of filing the plea till payment is made by the insurance company. The tribunal, however, had ordered a deduction of 20% towards contributory negligence by the deceased (motorcycle rider).

Through the present plea, the appellant, a family member of the deceased, sought enhancement of compensation granted by the tribunal.

The appellant’s case was that the deceased was driving a motorcycle and collided with a vehicle that was parked in the middle of the road without any signal or light indicator. Subsequently, after the collision, he sustained fatal injuries and passed away at the hospital. The deceased, who worked as a government contractor, was about 54 years old, and the appellants had asked the tribunal to award them damages of Rs. 50 lakh.

On the contrary, the respondents argued that the incident occurred due to the sole negligence of the deceased.

On perusal of the evidence on record, the court stated that there is no doubt that the accident occurred due to the irresponsible and negligent parking of the offending vehicle (DTC bus) by Respondent No.1 (Sandeep Kumar) in the middle of the road.

However, the court opined that the accident could have been avoided if the deceased could have driven his motorcycle with all due care while crossing the stationary bus. The court further opined that rash and negligent driving does not in every case necessarily mean excessive speed.

Conclusively, the court increased the compensation from Rs. 17,49,491 to Rs. 42,16,747.88. “However, 20% of the total awarded compensation is to be deducted as this is a case of contributory negligence. Therefore, Rs. 8,43,349.57/- is to be deducted from the awarded compensation for contributory negligence. Hence the compensation, after the deduction of contributory negligence would be Rs.33,73,398.31/- (Rs. 42,16,747.88/- - 20% of Rs.42,16,747.88/-). Further, it is also made clear that the rate of interest as fixed by the learned Claims Tribunal, i.e. 7.5 % is also maintained”, the court ordered.

Additionally, the court directed the Insurance company to deposit the enhanced amount with 7.5% interest from the date of filing of the present Appeal till the date of deposit within four weeks.

“Upon deposit of the said amount, the Registry is directed to release the said amount to the Appellants in terms of the Award passed by the learned Claims Tribunal. The statutory deposit with interest accrued thereon, if any, shall be released to the Appellants”, the court said in its order.

Accordingly, the appeal was allowed and disposed of with the aforesaid terms.

Case Title: Sushila Devi v. Sandeep Kumar