2017 Marine Drive accident: Bombay HC asks railway minister to sympathetically decide on Rs 5 crore for woman in vegetative state
A car owned by Western Railways struck the woman at Marine Drive in South Mumbai in 2017, and her father moved an appeal against an order of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal.
A division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Bharati H Dangre held, “In view of preceding analysis, PIL is dismissed. However, there shall be no order as to costs."
(Express File Photo) The Bombay High Court recently asked the railway minister to sympathetically consider and decide on the final settlement claim of Rs 5 crore for a 25-year-old woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state after an Innova car owned by Western Railways struck her at Marine Drive in South Mumbai eight years ago.
The accident occurred on May 28, 2017, when Nidhi Rajesh Jethmalani, then 17, was crossing the northern plank of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Road or Marine Drive, opposite the Marine Plaza hotel. She was on her way to K C College, just down the road, to seek admission in Class 12.
The Bombay High Court was hearing appeals by the woman’s father against a February 2021 order of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), Mumbai, which awarded Rs 69.92 lakh to her with an interest and Rs 1.5 crore corpus, interest from which would be used for her future medical and other expenses. In October 2022, the high court allowed the father to withdraw Rs 1.15 crore deposited in court by Western Railways, pending an appeal.
On March 6, a bench of Justices Girish S Kulkarni and Advait M Sethna termed it as “rarest of rare case”. It said that the brunt of the accident was taken by her head, “resulting in severe damage to the brain, which for a lay person in medicine, requires quite a courage to even read the details”.
“The impact of such an unfortunate accident was so horrendous that it has, as good as taken away her life rendering her in a persistent vegetative state. The photographs of this happy and promising girl and the present state in which she lies would bring loads of sorrow, unhappiness to anyone then what can be the suffering of Nidhi and the state of mind of the parents family members,” the high court observed.
The court compared her condition to that of the late Aruna Shanbaug, who was in a persistent vegetative state for over 40 years. It emphasised that the suffering experienced not only by the victim but also by her entire family was “beyond imagination”.
It observed, “Money in no manner can compensate such suffering of this young girl and the trauma and the pain of her family members.”
The judges noted that her caring parents have made significant efforts to provide costly medical assistance for their daughter. “The increasing need of money/funds in these circumstances cannot be a realistic relief from the pain and suffering and would only be a mitigating factor,” it said.
Considering the “tremendous expenditure” required, the suffering of the woman and the ordeal of her parents, the high court said the award amount for her was “certainly insufficient”.
The bench said this was a “fit case” for settlement. The father took a “reasonable stand” and proposed to settle the same for Rs 5 crore, excluding the amounts paid earlier.
The high court said it was “quite sure” that respondents, considering it a “gross case of human suffering, would show magnanimity to have settlement of the amount as offered on behalf of the appellant”.
If such an amount is accepted to be a fair settlement, the court said, “neither the years of suffering of the appellant nor the suffering of the family, in any manner, could be compensated. It would, therefore, be apt that the proceedings are put to an end.”
Posting the next hearing to March 20, the court requested respondent authorities to take instructions at the highest level. “The Cabinet minister for Railways, who in our opinion would graciously consider and sympathise with the gross facts of the case and take a decision, without this being treated as a precedent,” it said.
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