No evidence that dead man wasn’t wearing helmet: HC

CHENNAI: Observing that a private insurance company failed to establish that a deceased who died in a road accident was not wearing a helmet, the Madras High Court confirmed the award of Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Cuddalore, to grant Rs 28.90 lakh as accident claim to the family of the victim.

A division bench comprising Justice R Subramanian and Justice Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup issued the orders on dismissing the appeal filed by Reliance General Insurance Company.

According to the firm’s counsel, the tribunal failed to consider the fact that the victim was not wearing a helmet and had worked out the claim amount by treating the monthly salary of the deceased as Rs 15,000.

However, the judges rejected the submission saying that the first witness had stated that the victim was wearing a helmet and added that they did not find anything amiss on the part of the tribunal in accepting this evidence.

“Even assuming that there could be some deduction for non-wearing of a helmet, that would be set off since the tribunal has fixed a very low amount as income,” the bench held.