Page 48 - Insurance Times May 2022

LEGAL

Vehicle Insurance

Motor accident claims criteria in fire trag- compensation payable to each of the victim including the
families of the deceased have not been computed and such
edy amount is required to be computed in accordance with the
In a significant decision, the Supreme Court has ordered use principles of just compensation as in the case of accident
of Motor Accident Claims parameters, such as age of the under the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 by the Motor Accidents
victim and future earning capacity, to compute compensa- Claims Tribunal."
tion to be paid to kin of 65 victims and 161 injured in the
The state has already paid an ex-gratia amount of Rs 5 lakh
fire that engulfed visitors to the India Brand Consumer Show
to kin of each victim, Rs 2 lakh to those who sustained se-
at Meerut in 2006.
rious burn injuries and Rs 75,000 to those who escaped with
Earlier, in a tragedy of this nature, the kin of victims and minor burn injuries. The Union government had paid Rs 1
injured were provided ex-gratia payment by the state gov- lakh to kin of the dead and Rs 50,000 to those who suffered
ernments. The decision of the SC to apply motor accident serious burn injuries. The Rs 30 lakh deposited by the event
compensation claim parameters would enhance manifolds organiser has also been disbursed.
the amounts payable to kin of deceased and injured. Appli-
The SC said that the disbursed amounts would be taken into
cation of 'negligent pays the damage' principle, both to the
consideration while computing the compensation payable
event organisers and the state government, is a novelty.
to kin of each deceased and injured persons.
This order came from a bench of Justices Hemant Gupta
Rubbishing the organiser's attempt to palm off the blame
and V Ramasubramanian on a writ petition filed by the kin
on the contractor who erected the enclosure for India
of victims of the fire tragedy of April 10, 2006, the last day
Brand Consumer Show, the bench said, "The ticket proceeds
of the India Brand Consumer Show organized at Victoria
were collected by the organizers. It is the responsibility of
Park, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, by Mrinal Events and Exposi-
the organizers, having collected the entry fee, to ensure
tions. As many as 65 persons were charred to death and
the safety and well-being of the visitors. The organizers have
161 more suffered burn injuries.
failed in that duty causing loss of life of the innocent vic-
Rejecting every argument of senior advocate Shanti tims who came to see the exhibition, which was purely a
Bhushan to get the organisers off the hook from paying commercial event with an intention to earn profit by the
compensation beyond Rs 30 lakhs they had deposited, the organizers."
bench said, "We request the Chief Justice of the Allahabad
"Thus, the Court Commissioner has rightly fixed the liability
High Court to entrust the work of determination of com-
on the organizers to the extent of 60%, and on account of
pensation to a Judicial Officer in the rank of District Judge/
negligence in performing statutory duties by the officers of
Additional District Judge at Meerut within two weeks of the
the State, the State has been burdened with 40% of the
order of this Court to work exclusively on the question of
total liability. We do not find such distribution of liability
determination of the compensation on day-to-day basis."
suffers from any illegality which may warrant interference
Writing the judgment, Justice Gupta said, "The amount of by this Court," it said.
48 The Insurance Times, May 2022