Awarded Rs 17 lakh, Wipro employee seeks Rs7 cr as accident compensation

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: A Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) will once again hear the case of a Wipro employee who sustained injuries in an accident more than a decade ago.

He had been awarded a compensation of Rs.17 lakh which he sought to be enhanced to Rs.7 crore. The High Court allowed his petition and remitted the matter to the MACT for reconsideration as there was some evidence that had not been assessed earlier.

Madhukrishna S was working as the delivery head of a telecom project with Wipro and was based in Melbourne, Australia. He came to India on July 12, 2012, and hired a cab to reach his parents’ home in Girinagar.

The cab met with an accident near the Hebbal Flyover at around 1.30 am. After surgery and treatment, Madhukrishna was discharged from the hospital only on November 9, 2012.

His claim for compensation was heard by the MACT and on October 31, 2019, a compensation of Rs.17,51,707 was awarded to him. He challenged it by filing an appeal in the High Court which was heard by the Division Bench of Justice K Somashekar and Justice Umesh M Adiga.

It was argued on Madhukrishna’s behalf that Dr Ravi Gopal Varma who had treated him was not cross-examined in the MACT to determine the extent of disability suffered by the victim.

Even the advocate for the insurance company submitted that the said doctor stood for examination-in-chief but did not stand for crossexamination. Therefore, he urged that the matter be remitted back to the Tribunal.

The division bench therefore concluded that “Therefore, keeping in view the submission of the learned counsel for the respondent and so also keeping in view the contentious contentions made by the learned counsel for the appellant, without expressing any opinion on the merits of this matter this appeal deserves consideration to remit the same to the Tribunal only to cross-examine PW-4 / Dr. Ravi Gopal Varma.”

Since the issue was a decade old, the HC directed the Tribunal to dispose of the matter “within an outer limit of three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.” (MFA 3723/2020)