Post-Mortem Report Cannot Prevail Over PAN Card, Driving Licence To Determine Age Of Deceased: Rajasthan High Court
The Rajasthan High Court has made it clear that when determining the age of a deceased, the date of birth mentioned in his/her PAN Card, Driving License will prevail over the age determined through post-mortem.The observation was made by Justice Sandeep Taneja while dealing with appeals against award granted by Motor Accident Tribunal.After hearing the contentions, the Court highlighted that...
The Rajasthan High Court has made it clear that when determining the age of a deceased, the date of birth mentioned in his/her PAN Card, Driving License will prevail over the age determined through post-mortem.
The observation was made by Justice Sandeep Taneja while dealing with appeals against award granted by Motor Accident Tribunal.
After hearing the contentions, the Court highlighted that it was established that the accident occurred due to the negligence and rash driving of the car's driver. Further, it was also considered established that the truck driver was also negligent and responsible for the accident.
In this background, the Court held that there was no illegality in the Tribunal's decision to the effect that the accident occurred due to negligence of both the vehicles wherein the primary liability was of the car's driver. Hence, the liability of insurance claim was rightly apportioned as 75:25 between the car's and truck's respective insurance companies.
In the appeal filed by the claimants, it was contended that the monthly income of the deceased was determined based on a notional basis, while it should have been done based on the income tax returns of the year reflecting highest income.
Further, it was argued that age of the deceased was wrongly taken as 48 years, based on the post-partum report, as opposed to 41 years that was reflected in driving license and PAN.
After hearing the contentions, the Court enhanced the compensation by around Rs. 15 Lakhs and opined that the Tribunal erred in relying on the post-mortem report for determining the age of the deceased.
“The post-mortem report is a document to ascertain nature of injuries and cause of death. The age mentioned in the post mortem report is estimated on the basis of anatomical examination and the same does not reflect the accurate age. In the case in hand, the claimants have relied upon driving licence and PAN card of the deceased, issued by respective government agencies, which have higher degree of reliability as compared to that of the post-mortem report.”
It further affirmed that determination of annual income of the deceased for calculating the loss of dependency had to be done based on Income Tax Returns pertaining to the financial year reflecting highest income of the deceased.
The Court referred to the Supreme Court case of Nidhi Bhargava & Ors. Vs. National Insurance Company Ltd. & Ors. and agreed that the income of the deceased should be calculated based on income tax returns of the year reflecting highest income.
Lastly, the Court made a reference to the Supreme Court case of T.O. Anthony v Karvarnan and Ors. to hold that,
“…when a person dies or is injured as a result of negligence on the part of two or more wrong doers and not because of the negligence of the deceased / injured, then it will be a case of composite negligence of those wrong-doers and in that case, each wrong doer, will be jointly and severally liable to the claimants for payment of the damages and the claimants have the choice of proceedings against all or any of them.”
In this light, the Court held that since the present case was of composite negligence, despite apportionment of liability between the insurance companies, claimants had the right to claim compensation from any of them.
Accordingly, the compensation payable to the claimants was re-assessed, and enhanced by around Rs. 15 Lakhs.
Title: United India Insurance Company Limited v Smt. Mamta Sharma & Ors, and other connected petitions
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 184