HC for adequate compensation in death of homemakers in accidents

Judge increases award to Rs.6.86 lakh from Rs.1.62 lakh

The death of a homemaker in a road accident cannot be allowed to go uncompensated with a reasonable amount of money to her legal heirs just because she happened to be a non-earning member of a family, the Madras High Court Bench here has held.

Justice S. Vimala said, “It will be a travesty of justice to deny adequate compensation for the death of a homemaker who ensures that her family is happy, healthy and prosperous besides making sure that her husband’s hard-earned money is spent judiciously.”

She pointed out that American author J.R. Miller had succinctly encapsulated the role played by women —

women who make a sweet and beautiful home and fill it with love, prayer and purity are doing something better than anything else their hands could find to do beneath the skies .

The judge said: “This down to earth responsibility of homemaker which fills the earth with peace and joy coupled with creation of humankind is quite often conveniently forgotten or underestimated… when a woman dies in an accident as a homemaker.”

The observations were made while dismissing an appeal preferred by Medical Officer of a primary health centre (PHC) at M. Reddiapatti in Tiruchuli taluk of Virudhunagar district in 2010 against compensation granted to the husband and two minor girl children of a homemaker who died in 2004.

After completion of the trial in 2005, a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal had concluded that the woman, 31 years old at the time of the accident, was knocked down by a government vehicle belonging to the PHC. But it awarded only Rs.1.62 lakh by fixing her notional income at Rs.15,000 per annum.

Elaborating on the dispensable role played by a homemaker and pointing out that the deceased woman in the present case had left behind a five-year-old girl child, Ms. Justice Vimala said: “The tribunal, unmindful of the consequences of death, has quantified the compensation in a way which nobody can tolerate.”

She increased the compensation to Rs.6.86 lakh, even without the woman’s family having filed an application for it, and directed the appellant to disburse the money within six weeks along with interest at the rate of 7.5 per cent from the date of claim.

Recording the submission of the claimants’ counsel that the appellant had so far not deposited even the money awarded by the tribunal, she said that it was unfortunate that “the government, which is expected to be a role model-litigant, has not chosen to deposit even the meagre amount.”