Sarla Verma v Delhi Transport Corporation (2009)

Law of Torts · Motor Vehicles Act 1988

Facts.

A claim under the Motor Vehicles Act following a fatal road accident. Tribunals across the country had been applying widely differing multipliers and deductions, producing inconsistent awards on similar facts.

Issue.

How should compensation for death in a motor accident be computed, so that awards are just and reasonably uniform?

Held.

The Supreme Court laid down a standardised method: establish the deceased’s income, add a percentage for future prospects where appropriate, deduct a percentage for personal and living expenses according to the number of dependants, and apply a multiplier fixed by reference to the age of the deceased on a set scale.

Why it matters.

It is the working formula every Claims Tribunal now applies, later refined in National Insurance Co. v Pranay Sethi (2017). It is also the concrete answer to the syllabus word “awards”, which most students never address.

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