In an amputee's claim under the Motor Vehicles Act, the Supreme Court held that compensation for loss of earning capacity turns on functional disability — the real reduction in earning power in the claimant's vocation — not the percentage of physical disability certified by a medical board. It also reaffirmed that income-tax returns are cogent proof of pre-accident income and cannot be brushed aside on surmises.
The Supreme Court, following Reliance General Insurance v. Shashi Sharma, held that compassionate financial assistance under the Haryana Rules of 2006 — which replicates the deceased employee's pay and wages — must be deducted from the loss-of-income component of a Motor Vehicles Act dependency award, because allowing both would be an impermissible double benefit. Genuinely collateral receipts such as life insurance and family pension remain non-deductible under Helen C. Rebello.
The Supreme Court issued continuing-mandamus directions to make the Compensation of Victims of Hit and Run Motor Accidents Scheme, 2022 actually reach claimants — police must inform victims, file the First Accident Report, and route unfiled cases to legal-aid authorities. The Court also told the Centre to consider raising the ₹2 lakh and ₹50,000 caps.
On 17 March 2026, a two-judge bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Prasanna B. Varale held that amounts received by the dependants of the deceased under employer-provided group insurance — or under other contractual or social-security benefits — cannot be treated as 'pecuniary advantages' liable to be deducted from compensation awarded under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. The judgment affirms the prior doctrinal line that advantages accruing from contracts performed during the deceased's lifetime are not outcomes of the death itself, and produces a working frame for the just-compensation architecture in motor-accident claims.