The Karnataka High Court.
Credit: DH File Photo
The Karnataka High Court has awarded an enhanced compensation of Rs 79,56,875 with 6% interest to family members of the deceased BSNL engineer. A division bench comprising Justices KS Mudagal and Vijayakumar A Patil also overruled the finding of the accident tribunal, Bengaluru of attributing 20% contributory negligence on the deceased engineer.
The accident occurred on the morning of November 27, 2013 when the the now late-Narayan U Hegde was riding his motorcycle near Maharani College Junction Under-Pass, Palace Road, Bengaluru city. At the junction, a private bus hit his motorcycle. Hegde was shifted to St. Martha's Hospital and succumbed to his injuries on the same day.
The mother, wife and the daughter of deceased Hegde moved the tribunal seeking Rs 1.6 crore compensation. On July 17, 2015, the tribunal awarded them Rs 46,08,000 with interest at 6% per annum. The tribunal also held that the deceased, due to his negligence, had contributed 20% to the accident.
Both the claimants and the insurance company then moved the high court. The claimants contended that the tribunal had failed to consider the fact that the bus driver was solely responsible for the accident.
On the other hand, the insurance company argued that the motorcycle coming under the rear wheel of the bus was evidence that the accident victim who died had himself been negligent. This version of events was also supported by the bus driver's testimony.
The division bench perused the report of the Motor Vehicle Inspector which stated that the motorbike was moving on the right edge
of the road and the bus had moved to the extreme right from the left side of the road, bruising the motorcycle.
"The tribunal failed to consider the aforesaid evidence judiciously and committed an error in imputing 20% negligence to the victim. Moreover, the driver of the bus is not an independent witness as he will be interested in seeing that he is exonerated in the criminal case. The Tribunal lost sight of the said fact also," the bench said.
The bench noted that the deceased was 52 years old at the time of the accident and was drawing Rs 86,983 as gross salary as the Sub Divisional Engineer in Broadband Network Circle, BSNL, Bengaluru.