Supreme Court of India Judgements

47295 Judgements hosted as on 26/10/2026 - Search (FREE), Subscribe @ Rs 99/- for 6 months, sclaw@sclaw.in, WA +91 9417245693.

Category: Accident

Accident

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Section 166 — Claim Petition for death of bachelor — Selection of Multiplier — Multiplier to be determined based on age of deceased and not age of dependents/parents — Deceased was 33 years old at the time of accident — Correct multiplier applicable according to standardized matrix in Sarla Verma and Pranay Sethi is 16 — Argument of insurer that multiplier should correspond to age of parents rejected — MACT and High Court rightly applied multiplier of 16.

Sep 4, 2026 sclaw

2026 INSC 950 SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH RELIANCE GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED Vs. PRIYANKA DAS AND OTHERS ( Before : S.V.N. Bhatti and N. V. Anjaria, JJ. )…

Accident

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Section 2(28), S. 2(34) — “Motor vehicle” — “Public place” — Inland Container Depot — A Reach Stacker weighing 71.8 to 102 metric tonnes, far exceeding the permissible gross vehicle weight for vehicles on public roads, is a vehicle of special type adapted for use only within enclosed premises and falls within the exclusionary limb of Section 2(28); the internal roads of an ICD, being a customs-bonded area accessible only to authorized personnel, do not constitute a “public place”.

Jul 30, 2026 sclaw

2026 INSC 763 SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH CONTAINER CORPORATION OF INDIA LIMITED Vs. RISHI RANJAN MISHRA AND OTHERS ( Before : Sanjay Karol and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh, JJ.…

Accident

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Sections 165, 166 — Death allegedly caused by murder inside a motor vehicle — Claim for compensation — Requirement of causal link between death and “use” of motor vehicle — Held, mere presence of a motor vehicle in the chain of circumstances leading to death does not attract liability under MVA — Some nexus between the vehicle and the death must be established.

Jul 25, 2026 sclaw

2026 INSC 736 SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH DILIP AGARWAL Vs. RAJSHRI AGARWAL AND OTHERS ( Before : Sanjay Karol and Augustine George Masih, JJ. ) Civil Appeal Nos….of…

Accident

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Sections166, 168 — Compensation — Assessment of annual income of a self-employed deceased (wholesale grocery business) — Two ITRs filed after the death of the deceased excluded by the High Court altogether from the assessment of income — Held, following the principles in Rashmirekha Tripathy and Anr. v. The Branch Manager (Legal Claims), Sriram General Insurance Company Limited and Ors. [C.A. @ SLP(C) No.27220 of 2024, 2026 INSC 661], ITRs filed post-death call for closer scrutiny with reference to surrounding financial statements, since income may be inflated in such returns, but such returns are not to be excluded outright merely for being filed post-death — In the absence of the benefit of such surrounding financial statements on record, and it being inexpedient at this stage to remand the matter, annual income fixed with reference to the nature of the deceased’s wholesale grocery business at Rs.3,25,000 — Compensation recomputed applying 40% addition for future prospects (age 28 years), 1/4th deduction for personal expenses, and a multiplier of 17, together with conventional heads (loss of estate, funeral expenses, consortium) — Total compensation enhanced to Rs.60,79,550 (as against Rs.15,36,560 awarded by the Tribunal and Rs.38,40,850 awarded by the High Court), with interest as awarded by the Tribunal — Appeal allowed.

Jul 5, 2026 sclaw

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH SMT. REKHA AND OTHERS Vs. DINESH PORWAL AND OTHERS ( Before : Sanjay Karol and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh, JJ. ) Civil Appeal No….of 2026…

Accident

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Sections 166, 168 — Compensation — Assessment of annual income of a self-employed deceased (Insurance Agent) from Income Tax Returns — High Court had averaged the last four ITRs on record — Held, erroneous — Following the principles laid down in Rashmirekha Tripathy and Anr. v. The Branch Manager (Legal Claims), Sriram General Insurance Company Limited and Ors. [C.A. @ SLP(C) No.27220 of 2024, 2026 INSC 661], for a self-employed person the average of up to the previous three years’ ITRs, not four, is the appropriate reference point — A performance-linked spike in the income of an Insurance Agent in a particular year does not justify reaching back to an additional, earlier ITR to dilute that spike — On the facts, taking the average of the income for AY 2015-16 (Rs.4,03,180), AY 2016-17 (Rs.9,59,665) and AY 2017-18 (Rs.7,00,559), annual income assessed at Rs.6,87,802 — Compensation recomputed applying 25% addition for future prospects (age 49 years), 1/4th deduction for personal expenses, and a multiplier of 13, together with conventional heads (loss of estate, funeral expenses, consortium) — Total compensation enhanced to Rs.87,09,282 (as against Rs.49,77,000 awarded by the Tribunal and Rs.76,09,500 awarded by the High Court), with interest as awarded by the Tribunal — Appeal allowed.

Jul 5, 2026 sclaw

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH RAJANI AND OTHERS Vs. MUKESH AND OTHERS ( Before : Sanjay Karol and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh, JJ. ) Civil Appeal No…of 2026 (Arising out…

Accident

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Sections 166, 168 — Compensation — Assessment of annual income of deceased/claimant on the basis of Income Tax Returns — Whether the ITR of the previous year alone, or the average of the previous two/three years, is to be taken — Held, no hard and fast formula governs computation of annual income; ITRs, being statutory documents, are an important reference point, but a bifurcation must be made between salaried and self-employed individuals — (i) For salaried individuals, the ITR of the previous year alone ordinarily suffices, since the financial impact of a promotion or salary revision is best reflected in that year’s return; where the deceased had not completed a year in a promoted position, or had not filed a return for that period, the Court may rely on the promotion letter and other corroborative financial statements; (ii) For self-employed persons/those running their own business, the average of the ITRs for up to the previous three years is to be taken as the reference point, having regard to the inherent income fluctuation in such professions — In assessing self-employed income, the surrounding circumstances to be additionally considered include: (a) the nature of the business (including geography and category); (b) its growth pattern and the impact of the death on the business; (c) its potential/future growth, including capital-intensive businesses profitable only at scale; (d) the possibility of negative income in initial years not reflecting the true financial standing; and (e) any other relevant factor — The date of filing of an ITR is also relevant, since income may be inflated after the death/injury; such returns call for closer scrutiny against surrounding financial statements, though they are not to be excluded outright merely for being filed post-death, if adequately supported.

Jul 5, 2026 sclaw

2026 INSC 661 SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH RASHMIREKHA TRIPATHY AND ANOTHER Vs. THE BRANCH MANAGER (LEGAL CLAIMS), SRIRAM GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED AND OTHERS ( Before : Sanjay…

Accident

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Section 168 — Notional income of skilled worker — Carpenter — Assessment — The appellant, a carpenter aged 38 years, suffered amputation of his right leg below the knee in a road accident in November 2004 — The Claims Tribunal assessed his monthly income at Rs. 3,000/- and the High Court enhanced it to Rs. 5,000/- relying on minimum wages. Held — A carpenter is a skilled artisan who works with precision and manual dexterity — His income cannot be equated with that of an unskilled worker — Where the appellant’s unrefuted evidence showed earnings of Rs. 8,000/- to Rs. 10,000/- per month, and a skilled job always has the potentiality to fetch higher income, the High Court erred in restricting the figure to Rs. 5,000/- — Considering the date of accident, decisions in comparable cases and the fact of the appellant being a skilled worker, his notional monthly income is assessed at Rs. 9,000/- per month.

Jun 26, 2026 sclaw

2026 INSC 656 SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH SHANKAR DUTT Vs. UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO. LTD. AND OTHERS ( Before : Ujjal Bhuyan and N.V. Anjaria, JJ. ) Civil…

Accident

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Section 166 and 140 — Compensation for death in motor vehicular accident — Negligence — Truck stationed on road at night without warning lights or indicators — Wagon-R car collided from behind — Held, truck driver was negligent in leaving the vehicle unattended on the road without adequate precautionary measures, which was the proximate cause of the accident.

Jun 24, 2026 sclaw

2026 INSC 653 SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH THE ORIENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED Vs. KALU RAM AND OTHERS ( Before : Prashant Kumar Mishra and N.V. Anjaria, JJ. )…

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