In Brief
A 20-year-old final-year Chartered Accountancy student was killed when his car collided with an unlit, parked truck on a Delhi road at 3 a.m. The Supreme Court upheld the truck driver's sole liability, rejecting claims of contributory negligence by the car driver. For calculating compensation, the Court confirmed that a professional student nearing qualification should not be valued by their training stipend alone. Instead, their potential entry-level earnings should guide assessment. Here, benchmarking the deceased's future income against a Group-A government officer's starting salary (₹55,500 monthly) was reasonable and just. The Court upheld ₹81.21 lakhs compensation and added ₹80,000 for parental loss, totaling ₹82.01 lakhs with interest.
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