HC: Give Rs 23 lakh to late chef’s kin

But not before Justice J R Midha gave due respect to a man with “unique” talent who whipped up meals for the likes of former President Giani Zail Singh,former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi,King Carlos and Queen Sophia of Spain,Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of United Kingdom,and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Pant,then 48,was travelling in an autorickshaw with Rita on Janpath when an Air Force truck hit the vehicle,overturning it and leaving him with severe head injuries on September 9,1998. He died a week later.

Justice Midha found that Pant had graduated from Delhi University in 1972 and had gone on to take a degree from the Culinary Institute of America. He had worked with top hotel brands in India and abroad,including the Maurya Sheraton in Delhi and the Taj Group in Japan. He had left the Taj Group to start his own catering service just three years before his death.

“Great chefs are artists and must be treated as such. They not only master traditional recipes but invent new dishes,” Justice Midha wrote in his judgment.

Justice Midha said the finest restaurants in the world are defined by the competitiveness of their chefs. The very fact that Pant held a position as an executive chef in some of them showed the extent of his talent.

“The restaurants Bukhara and Dum Pukht in Maurya Sheraton have been rated as the world’s best restaurants,which is not an accident or fluke but emerges from care and attention paid to chefs,” the judgment stated.

The judge listed other “chef-based” restaurants in metropolitan cities like Smokehouse Grill,Olive,Aunes and Caperberry to buttress his point.

Describing Pant as a “very highly qualified chef”,the High Court more than doubled the accident compensation amount of Rs 10.35 lakh earlier awarded by an accident tribunal.

“The professional experience of the deceased and also considering the fact that an executive chef is one of the highest paid officials in five-star hotels,it can be presumed that he had the capacity to earn at least Rs 20,000,” the judgment stated.