Dismissing argument by the insurance company that the victim’s family was not entitled to compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act as the deceased was covered under the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), a Delhi court has awarded a compensation of ₹17.77 lakh to the victim’s husband in a 2014 road accident case.
Ordering the compensation, Presiding Officer Raj Kumar said: “To my mind, the above-said submission is not tenable at all”.
The driver and the owner of the offending vehicle argued that the petition was without any cause of action and opposed the compensation claim.
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They said that the accident was not caused by the vehicle No. DL- 1LT-9648 (offending vehicle) but by some other vehicle, and that they had been falsely implicated in the claim petition. They further urged the court to dismiss the claim petition.
Falsely implicated
The insurance company with which the vehicle was insured also supported their argument, stating that the vehicle had been falsely implicated as it was neither seized at the spot nor was the registration number of the offending vehicle mentioned in the FIR.
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Dismissing their arguments, the Presiding Officer said: “In view of the testimony of PW-1 (husband of the deceased); and after going through all the documents filed by the police along with the detailed accident report; I am of the considered opinion that the accident in question was caused on account of rash and negligent driving of the offending vehicle by the driver.”
The offending vehicle had knocked down the 25-year-old victim while she was ridding pillion. Her husband had demanded a compensation of ₹50 lakh.