The High Court of Karnataka has enhanced from ₹15.07 lakh to ₹35.53 lakh the compensation to be paid to the parents of a 20-year-old engineering student who died after a BMTC bus knocked her down in 2015.

A division bench comprising K.S. Mudagal and Justice Vijaykumar A. Patil passed the order while allowing the appeal filed by Mary Franchana and Christy Babu, parents of deceased Mary Sindhu, who was then studying in the seventh-semester B.E course.

Negligence of driver

Both the parents and the BMTC had questioned the order passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Bengaluru, which had directed the BMTC to pay ₹15.07 lakh as compensation while holding that the accident was caused due to negligence of the bus driver, who was charge-sheeted by the police.

While parents claimed that the compensation was on the lower side, the BMTC had claimed the compensation was high as the rider of the scooter, on which the girl was ridding pillion, too was responsible for the accident. Sindhu’s classmate, who was riding the scooter, had survived the accident.

Academic excellence

However, the court, considering Sindhu’s academic excellence, said the parents are entitled to higher compensation. It pointed out that Sindhu would have earned a notional income of at least ₹22,000 per month after completing her B.E course, as against the notional income of ₹12,000 assessed by the tribunal.

The court calculated the compensation for loss of dependency as ₹33.26 lakh while applying ₹22,000 as notional income to the multiplier method of computing the compensation amount as against ₹12.96 lakh calculated by the tribunal.

The court directed the BMTC to pay the parents a total compensation of ₹35.53 lakh, with 6% interest from the date of the petition, which was filed in 2017, until the compensation is realised.