The Supreme Court reiterated that there's no restriction upon the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal (“MACT”) to award compensation exceeding the amount claimed by the claimant.
The Court said that if the claimant is entitled to a higher amount than claimed, than he's entitled to be paid the actual compensation as determined by the court.
The bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Pankaj Mithal upon placing reliance on the judgment of Mona Baghel & Ors. vs. Sajjan Singh Yadav & Ors. reported in 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 734 observed that since the function of the Tribunal or Court under Section 168 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 is to award “just compensation”, therefore is no restriction that the Court cannot award compensation exceeding the claimed amount.
“The above decision clearly lays down that there is no restriction upon the court to award compensation exceeding the amount claimed. It is the duty of the Tribunal or Court under Section 168 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) to award just compensation. Since the Act is a beneficial legislation a “just compensation” is one which is fair and reasonable on the basis of the evidence adduced irrespective of the amount claimed.”, the Court said.
In the present case, the Appellant has been awarded Rs. 19,55,250/- compensation by the MACT against the claimed amount of Rs.38,34,000/-. In an appeal before the High Court against the MACT's order, the Appellant has confined its claim to Rs. 23,55,250/- i.e., Rs. 4,00,000/- in addition to the compensation determined by the MACT (Rs. 19,55,250/- plus Rs. 4,00,000/- equals Rs. 23,55,250/-).
The High Court had revised the award of compensation from Rs. 19,55,250/- to Rs.28,00,375/-, however, refused to award such compensation because of the default committed by the Appellant in not paying the court fees on Rs. Rs.28,00,375/- but had paid court fees of Rs. 23,55,250/-
The Court observed that the High Court erred in not awarding the determined compensation of Rs. Rs.28,00,375/- to the claimant, and noted that the defect of non-payment of the court fees could be rectified by paying court fees on the remaining amount (Rs.28,00,375/- minus Rs. 23,55,250/- equals to Rs. 4,45,125/-).
“In the light of the above, we permit the appellants to amend the claim amount in the appeal and to pay court fee on the additional amount of the compensation of Rs. 28,00,375/- less the amount awarded i.e. 19,55,250/- and additional amount of Rs. 4,00,000/-, on which court fee appears to be already paid, i.e. Rs. 4,45,125/-, within a period of four weeks from today whereupon the amount of compensation determined by the court shall be paid to the appellants within a further period of four weeks thereafter.”, the court said.
Accordingly, the appeal was allowed.
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