HC stays its direction to police to pay Rs 75L compensation to youth in vegetative state

The high court admitted the appeal and listed it for final hearing on October 22. Delhi Police, represented by additional standing counsel Gautam Narayan, told the bench that the issues raised before the single judge were not maintainable in a writ petition as it involved questions of fact and only a civil suit could have been filed for seeking damages.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday put on hold the implementation of its order directing the police to pay compensation of Rs 75 lakh to family of a youth who is in a vegetative state after being met with an accident due to the chained barricades kept on a road here. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan stayed operation of the May 18 order of a single judge who had held that the victim was entitled to damages for the negligence and failure of the Delhi Police to discharge its duty.

The division bench passed the order on the Delhi Police' appeal against the May 18 decision. The high court admitted the appeal and listed it for final hearing on October 22.

Delhi Police, represented by additional standing counsel Gautam Narayan, told the bench that the issues raised before the single judge were not maintainable in a writ petition as it involved questions of fact and only a civil suit could have been filed for seeking damages. The counsel told the bench that there was a Supreme Court decision which has held that in such cases where questions of fact are involved, only a civil suit was maintainable.

He also said that the amount of Rs 75 lakh has been deposited with the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court. The bench directed that the amount be put in a fixed deposit with a nationalised bank. The single judge in his decision had noted that the barricades were neither properly lighted nor adequate reflectors or blinkers were put on them to make them visible from a long distance.

The high court awarded Rs 75 lakh compensation to petitioner Dheeraj Kumar, who was 21 years old at the time of the incident in December 2015. The accident took place on an early December morning in West Punjabi Nagar area when Kumar and his father were returning home on a motorcycle and collided with police barricades which were chained together so as to cordon off a road/ street completely.

The victim was admitted at Safdarjung Hospital and after undergoing multiple surgeries and treatment, he was discharged in a state of unconsciousness. The high court was informed that as per the discharge summary record, he was in a state of ''altered sensorium, eye opening to pain, not opening to commands'' and since then, his condition has not changed.

The youth and his father approached the high court seeking compensation towards the refund of medical expenses, loss of income/dependency, loss of prospects, continuing future needs as also for the pain and suffering suffered due to the accident. The high court, in its verdict, had said the barricades were chained and therefore, did not allow vehicles to pass through and such chains could not have been visible to the motorist from a distance. The police, in its response, had contended that the accident took place due to contributory negligence of Kumar as he was speeding and was unable to brake in time to avoid colliding with the barricades.

The police asserted that the barricades were placed in a well-illuminated area and were visible from a considerable distance and the motorist seemed to have tried to slip through the gap in between the barriers and owing to the speed at which the vehicle was travelling, he was unable to spot the chain linking the barricades. It also claimed that as no helmet or any protective gear of any sort was found at the site of the accident, thus Kumar was in violation of the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.