Sister of unmarried man entitled to damages: Madras HC

Chennai: The Madras high court has held that the sister of an unmarried man, who died in a road accident, is also entitled to compensation.

Partly allowing an appeal from Malliga, sister of deceased Ganapathy, Justice M.V.Muralidaran set aside an order of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Vellore, declining the entitlement of compensation by the appellant.

The judge directed the United Insurance Company to pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation to Malliga.

 According to Malliga, even though the tribunal had held that the accident had occurred due to rash and negligent driving of the lorry driver and that the owner and the insurance company were liable to pay compensation, it refused to pass any order on October 29, 2014,  since she had failed to prove that she was the legal heir of the deceased. Hence, she filed the present appeal, she added.

Citing judgments of the Supreme Court and high courts, the judge said as regards dependency compensation was concerned, there was no hard and fast rule that brothers and
sisters cannot maintain a claim petition for compensation under the said head. Each case has to be considered on its own merits. In the case on hand, the appellant was the sister of the deceased and she has produced the
relationship certificate to that effect.

“This court is of the view that the appellant is the dependent of the deceased and she is entitled to maintain the claim petition for the death of her deceased brother, as no class I heir available,”  the judge added.