A housewife not only does household work but also fulfills all her responsibility and take care of the entire family, so calculating her income as that of a normal person is not correct, Calcutta High Court ruled in its recent order. (Pratima Sahoo v. Chalomandalan MS General Insurance Co. Ltd.)
Facts of the case are that the appellant named Pratima Sahoo met with an accident in 2013 which left her with several injuries and 50% disability. She is not able to move easily from one place to another. She informed the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal(MACT) that her income is ₹4,000.
₹5000 were awarded for mental agony and pain and ₹2,09,746 by the insurance company. The appellant challenged this judgement where she pleaded that she had lost her future earning capacity and had suffered from mental agony and trauma. Thus the compensation must be increased.
Single Judge bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta opined that one cannot expect from a housewife to produce a document of her salary. Also her salary cannot be calculated as like that of a normal person on a monthly basis as she not only does all household chores but also takes care of all the needs of the entire family including husband, children, in-laws and other family members.
The appellant is in such a state that she cannot be expected to work in future with the same capacity. The court ordered the insurance company to pay compensation of ₹2,14,000 apart from the previous one.
The court also held that there is no straight jacket formula to calculate the compensation for the mental trauma and suffering of the victim. It observed that ₹5,000 is very much low in the said category. Thus it ordered the respondent to pay ₹50,000 for the appellant’s pain and mental sufferings.
Advocate Subhankar Mandal appeared for the appellant.
Written by – Tannu
College- Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak
Semester- 3,an intern under Legal Vidhiya
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