Road Accident Not 'Act Of God', Court Orders Rs 20 Lakh Compensation To Victim

The Bombay High Court has rejected the Mumbai Motor Accident Claims Tribunal's argument that a road accident was an ‘Act of God’, and awarded compensation to the next of kin of the victim.

The Bombay HC division bench of Justice AS Chandurkar and Justice Jitendra Jain made the observation while overturning a MACT ruling that denied compensation to the victims of a between a Maruti car and a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation bus in 1997.

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Accident happened in 1997

The car carrying four people met with a bus leaving all the occupants injured.

While three of them later recovered, the owner of the car, who was also behind the wheel at the time of the mishap, Rajesh Shejpal had suffered serious injuries.

He was hospitalised for nearly five months and remained bedridden till his death.

Shejpal who was working as a deputy finance manager with Reliance Industries had approached MACT, initially seeking compensation of Rs 1 Crore, which was subsequently increased to Rs 10 Crore.

Act of God

However, in 2005 the MACT rejected the plea and held that since neither of the two drivers involved were at fault, the accident was an 'act of God'.

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Shejpal's family filed an appeal in the Bombay HC, which on April 4 rejected the notion of an 'act of God'.

Why it was not an Act of God

The two-judge bench noted that an 'act of God' would mean something that is not in control of the human being, but in this case, there was no averment like foggy weather and the collision was in the middle of the road.

?"Hence, it cannot be a case of an act of God and the principle of elimination applied by the tribunal is erroneous," the bench said.?

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Both drivers partly at fault

"The negligence has to be on the part of one or both the drivers. Therefore, the reasoning adopted by the tribunal cannot be sustained," the court said.

The court further directed the New India Assurance Company and MSRTC to pay a compensation of Rs 40,34,000. Out of this, half of the amount -- 20.17 lakh was to be given to the family members of Shejpal as the court held him partly responsible for the accident.

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