Calculation of Compensation for Victims in Road Accidents : Can Minimum Wage become a Basis for Arriving at Income of Victim ?
In case of Chandra @ Chanda @ Chandraram v. Mukesh Kumar Yadav [2021] GCtR 2351 (SC), it has emerged that when there is no documentary evidence of income of victim of road accident, even then income has to be more than min. wage of skilled worker. It was held that "in absence of salary certificate the minimum wage notification can be a yardstick but at the same time cannot be an absolute one to fix the income of the deceased." The income of victim in such case was taken as 2.6 times the said min. wage or Rs. 9000/- more than the min. wage of skilled worker.
It was clearly held that "in absence of documentary evidence on record some amount of guesswork is required to be done. But at the same time the guesswork for assessing the income of the deceased should not be totally detached from reality. Merely because claimants were unable to produce documentary evidence to show the monthly income of victim, same does not justify adoption of lowest tier of minimum wage while computing the income."
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