CHENNAI: Holding that expiry of the validity of an insurance policy of a vehicle cannot be a ground to deny compensation to an accident victim, the Motor Vehicles Accident Claims Tribunal in Chennai has awarded a compensation of Rs 39 lakh to the legal heirs of a 27 year-old techie, who died in an accident in 2012.
Accepting the arguments of advocate AS Bilal, the tribunal, which is also the 2nd Court of Small Causes, presided over by S Priya, awarded the compensation, while passing orders on a claim from the father, mother and sister of the deceased V Vasanthakumar, last week.
The Reliance General Insurance Company should pay Rs 38.79 lakh with nine per cent interest from April 2013, the date of filing of the claim, to the claimants within 30 days and it is entitled to recover the same from S Ramesh of Kandigai, the owner of the vehicle, which was involved in the accident, the judge said.
According to Bilal, the deceased was a mechanical engineer working in a private soft-ware firm in SIPCOT at Oragadam.
He was a bachelor drawing a salary of about Rs 30,000 at the time of the accident. While he was returning in the office car, a milk van owned by Ramesh rammed against the car killing him on the spot on the ECR near Aarambakkam on April 13, 2012. The driver escaped with injuries. Bilal demanded a reasonable compensation taking into consideration the age of the deceased and the future prospects, including promotions.