High Court Reduced Disability Of Claimant Without Assigning Plausible Reason: Supreme Court Restores MACT Award
The Supreme Court restored disability of a claimant to 25% and thus restored the award passed by Motor Accident Claims Tribunal.
The Court was hearing a Civil Appeal where the Appellant challenged the final judgment passed by the High Court of Karnataka that partly allowed an Appeal filed by the National Insurance Company.
The bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice R. Mahadevan observed, “Without assigning plausible reason, the High Court re-assessed the compensation by reducing the disability suffered by the appellant to 20%. We are of the view that the reduction of compensation was not required, particularly, when there is no basis in support thereof. Therefore, the judgment passed by the High Court is liable to be interfered with.”
Brief Facts-
The appellant in the present case initially filed a claim petition seeking Rs. 20L for injuries sustained in a motor accident while travelling as a pillion rider on a motorcycle insured with the respondent insurance company. The Tribunal awarded Rs. 5.38L plus 6% interest p/a from the date of the petition until the deposit, accounting for a 25% disability. Dissatisfied with the Tribunal's decision, the insurance company appealed before the High Court which allowed the appeal in part and reduced the compensation to Rs.4.74L by taking into consideration disability only at 20%.
The Court addressed the only issue of whether the High Court is right in reducing the percentage of disability suffered by the appellant from 25% as fixed by the Tribunal, to 20% while determining the compensation payable to him.
The Court took note of the disability certificate that said that the appellant suffered 50% permanent disablement. It also noted that after noting the oral and documentary evidence, the Tribunal has taken the disability of the appellant only at 25% and determined the compensation payable to him.
The Court further noted that the High Court reduced the disability to 20% without any basis and reassessed the compensation.
Accordingly, the Court set aside the impugned judgment and restored the judgment passed by the Tribunal that fixed the disability of the appellant at 25%.
Finally, the Court allowed the Civil Appeal.
Cause Title: Rahul v. National Insurance Company Ltd. and another (Neutral Citation: 2024 INSC 598)