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Earning Heirs Entitled to Compensation Under MV Act

In CIVIL APPEAL NOS. 242­243 OF 2020, National Insurance Company Limited vs Birender, one of the principal issue before the Supreme Court was whether the major sons of the deceased who are married and gainfully employed or earning, can claim compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act ?

The Supreme Court referring to judgment of the court in Manjuri Bera (Smt) v. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. & Anr., observed that the legal representatives of the deceased could move application for compensation by virtue of clause (c) of Section 166(1). The major married son who is also earning and not fully dependant on the deceased, would be still covered by the expression “legal representative” of the deceased. Liability to pay compensation under the Act does not cease because of absence of dependency of the concerned legal representative. Notably, the expression “legal representative” has not been defined in the Act. Further, the court held that while adverting to the provisions of Section 140 of the Act, the Court observed that even if there is no loss of dependency, the claimant, if he was a legal representative, will be entitled to compensation. The compensation constitutes part of the estate of the deceased. As a result, the legal representative of the deceased would inherit the estate. Therefore, it must necessarily follow that even the major married and earning sonsof the deceased being legal representatives have a right to apply for compensation and it would be the bounden duty of the Tribunal to consider the application irrespective of the fact whether the concerned legal representative was fully dependant on the deceased and not to limit the claim towards conventional heads only.



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