Vakil Help Desk News: the Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that parents can claim motor-accident compensation for the death of an unborn child, treating a 28-week foetus as a child under the Motor Vehicles Act.
Vakil Help Desk News, Litigation & Courts. The Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that parents are entitled to compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 for the death of their unborn child in a road accident, and that a 28-week foetus must be treated as a child for this purpose. The ruling came in a motor-accident compensation appeal decided by Justice Parmod Goyal.
The pregnant victim, then about 28 weeks along, was struck by a scooter in 1997 and suffered injuries that led to the loss of the foetus. The Claims Tribunal had found the driver negligent but dismissed the claim as not maintainable, relying on an older view that loss of a foetus is not compensable. Setting that aside, the High Court followed the reasoning that where a pregnancy has crossed six months and a road accident causes the loss, compensation for the loss of the baby can be claimed, because Indian law recognises the rights of a child in the womb.
Applying age-wise multipliers for children and a notional income, the Court worked out the award under heads including loss of dependency, loss of estate, funeral expenses and parental (filial) consortium, with interest, and allowed the appeal.
What this means for you
If a road accident causes the death of an unborn child after about six months of pregnancy, the parents can pursue a motor-accident compensation claim — it is not automatically barred.