Deciding connected appeals arising from a single motorcycle-truck collision, the Supreme Court has confirmed two claimant-favourable principles for motor accident compensation. First, that the compensation multiplier for a deceased bachelor's death must be selected based on the deceased's own age under the standardised matrix in Sarla Verma and Pranay Sethi, not the age of the deceased's parents, applying multiplier 16 for the deceased's age bracket of 31-35 years.
Second, on the injured pillion rider's own claim, the Court held that functional earning capacity cannot be discounted merely because the claimant continued in the same employment role after the accident — enhancing her compensation to over Rs. 3.77 crore after she was certified as suffering 100% permanent disability, and holding that earning capacity in the open labour market, not continued retention in a specific job, is the correct legal test.
Together, the two holdings confirm that the age of the deceased — not the dependants' — governs the multiplier for a bachelor's death, and that continued employment post-accident does not by itself defeat a claim of substantial or total loss of future earning capacity, even where the claimant has, in practice, managed to keep working.