Rajasthan HC Enhances Compensation To ₹78 Lakh In MBBS Final-Year Student's Accidental Death, Applies Notional Income of ₹50K Per Month
The Rajasthan High Court has enhanced the compensation from around Rs. 50 Lakhs to Rs. 78 Lakhs in favour of the family of a 23-year old final year MBBS student who passed away in an accident in the year 2015.
The bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand referred to the Supreme Court case of Bishnupriya Panda v. Basanti Manjari Mohanty & Anr. that dealt with an identical factual situation, and considered the notional income of the deceased, coupled with the future prospects, to be Rs. 50,000 per month.
The Court was hearing cross appeals filed against the order of the Accidents Claims Tribunal that awarded a compensation of Rs. 40,90,000 to the family of the deceased.
The deceased was a 23 year old man, who was in his final year of MBBS, but met with an accident and passed away in 2015.
It was the case of the insurance company that since the deceased was merely a student and did not earn a “single penny”, the hypothetical assumption by the tribunal that he would become a doctor and earn a particular amount of salary was erroneous.
On the contrary, the claimants argued that since the deceased was in his final year of MBBS, had he been alive, he would have become a doctor, and earned a handsome amount as salary. Hence, the tribunal committed an error in determining the notional income of the deceased as Rs. 25,000 only.
After hearing the contentions, the Court referred to the above-mentioned Supreme Court case, and highlighted that the Apex Court dealt with an identical situation of death of a final year MBBS student in the year 2013. Herein, the Supreme Court had concluded the notional income of the deceased to be Rs. 50,000 per month.
In this background, the Court observed that it had no option but to treat the notional income of the deceased in the present case to be Rs. 50,000, and accordingly enhanced the compensation.
Hence, the appeal by the insurance company was rejected and the compensation was enhanced to Rs. 78,30,000/-.
Title: Smt. Imrawati Devi & Ors. v Ramveer & Ors.
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 74