Motor Accident Claim | Loss Suffered By Parents Cannot Be Assessed With Arithmetical Precision: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has observed that the loss suffered by parents on account of the death of their child cannot be measured with "arithmetical precision" and that determination of compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act is not an exercise in exact mathematical calculation.

A Bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice N.V. Anjaria made the observation while dismissing an appeal filed by the Oriental Insurance Company challenging compensation awarded to the parents of a 20-year-old Chartered Accountancy student who died in a road accident in Delhi in 2013.

"The loss suffered by the parents of the deceased cannot be measured with arithmetical precision, and the compensation awarded, viewed holistically, cannot be said to transgress the bounds of 'just compensation' under the MV Act," the Court observed.

The deceased, Akash Kumar, was pursuing CA (Final) and undergoing articleship when the car in which he was travelling collided with a truck parked on a Delhi road at around 3 a.m. The claimants contended that the truck had been stationed without parking lights, reflectors or warning signs, making it invisible in the darkness.

The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal held the truck driver negligent and awarded compensation of ₹81.21 lakh. The Delhi High Court affirmed the award. Both the insurer and the claimants approached the Supreme Court, the insurer seeking reduction of compensation and the claimants seeking enhancement.

Rejecting the insurer's contention that the compensation was excessive, the Court noted that although the Tribunal had adopted a methodology that involved a degree of overlap by considering the deceased's future professional prospects while fixing his income and again granting future prospects, interference at this stage would not advance substantive justice.

The Bench observed that the case involved the death of a young student standing at the threshold of a promising professional career and that the law's attempt to award compensation was ultimately aimed at providing a measure of solace to those who suffered an irreparable loss.

"The life of a young individual and the loss suffered by his family cannot be measured in precise monetary terms, and the determination of 'just compensation' under the MV Act does not admit of mathematical exactitude," the Court said.

At the same time, the Court declined the claimants' request for further enhancement towards loss of dependency, observing that compensation cannot be based on assumptions that the deceased would certainly have qualified as a Chartered Accountant and achieved a particular level of professional success. Such an exercise would enter the realm of speculation, it said.

However, the Court found that no amount had been awarded under the conventional head of filial consortium. Relying on the principles laid down in National Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Pranay Sethi and Magma General Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Nanu Ram, it granted ₹40,000 each to the deceased's parents towards filial consortium.

Accordingly, the Court enhanced the compensation from ₹81.21 lakh to ₹82.01 lakh, together with interest at the rate awarded by the Tribunal, and directed the insurer to deposit the enhanced amount within four weeks.

Case : The Oriental Insurance Co Ltd v Kalu Ram

Citation : 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 643

Click here to read the judgment