The Gujarat High Court has upheld a motor-accident compensation award after rejecting an insurer’s unsupported claim that the injured claimant’s income-tax returns were fabricated. It also said future prospects are not confined to people in permanent employment. The ruling treats returns as relevant evidence, not as conclusive proof in every claim.
What the Gujarat High Court decided
In United India Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Pankajkumar Mahendrasinh Beravat & Anr., R/First Appeal No. 2637 of 2025, Justice J. C. Doshi dismissed the insurer’s appeal and left in place the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal’s reported award of ₹12,95,280. The case concerned compensation for injuries from a motorcycle accident in Dahod on 25 March 2012. LiveLaw’s report identifies the decision as 2026 LiveLaw (Guj) 279; the award amount and other case details are also reported by CourtBook.
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CourtBook reports that the award included future loss of income, actual loss of income, pain and suffering, and related expenses, with interest at 7% per annum from filing of the claim petition until realization. Those are details of this reported award, not general rates or rules for other claims.
Why the returns mattered
The claimant, Pankajkumar Mahendrasinh Beravat, was reported to be a third-year diploma student in civil engineering who also worked as a civil contractor. He relied on income-tax returns for four financial years to support his earnings and claimed income of about ₹28,000 a month. That monthly figure is his reported claim; the available reports do not establish it as a separate judicial finding.
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The insurer argued that it was improbable for a full-time student to earn income and that the returns were fictitious. The High Court treated income-tax returns as statutory documents relevant to income, including income from business or professional activity. It was not enough, the court said, to allege exaggeration: the insurer had not put forward cogent or concrete evidence that the returns were fabricated or the disclosed income artificially inflated. LiveLaw also reports that the returns were not disputed in the insurer’s written statement, through evidence, or in cross-examination.
“Therefore, in absence of any cogent or concrete evidence in contrast demonstrating that the income-tax returns were fabricated or that the income disclosed therein was artificially inflated, the mere assertion that such returns were filed with a view to exaggerate the income cannot be accepted.”
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This quotation is reproduced in LiveLaw’s account of the ruling. The full court order was not available in the reports cited here, so the quotation and account should not be treated as a substitute for the judgment’s complete text.
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- Returns are relevant evidence of income; a claimant’s student status or self-employment does not by itself make earning income impossible.
- A party alleging fabrication or inflation needs concrete evidence, rather than an unsupported assertion.
- The decision does not make every return conclusive. A tribunal may assess returns alongside the other evidence in a particular case.
Future prospects are not limited to permanent employees
The insurer also argued that future prospects should not be allowed because the claimant was not permanently incapacitated from his occupation. The High Court rejected that position, relying on Supreme Court authority for treating future prospects as an additional component of just and fair compensation, not a benefit restricted to people in permanent employment.
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LiveLaw reports that the court relied on Meena Pawaia and Others v. Ashraf Ali and Others, (2021) 17 SCC 148, and Rashmirekha Tripathi and Anr. v. The Branch Manager (Legal Claims), Shriram General Insurance Company Limited and Others, a 2026 Supreme Court ruling. CourtBook also names V. Pathmavathi v. Bharthi Axa General Insurance Company Limited. The reports do not supply the full order’s complete citations or detailed application of each precedent.
The reports do not state the precise future-prospects percentage in the affirmed calculation or provide enough information to reconstruct the full award. The decision therefore supports the broader point about eligibility beyond permanent employment, but these reports cannot establish a universal percentage or formula.
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Why the court rejected the appeal
Justice Doshi also cautioned against using an appeal simply to reopen issues settled by binding precedent without identifying a legal or factual flaw in the award. The court connected that concern to the purpose of motor-accident proceedings: providing expeditious and just compensation to victims.
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On the effect of unnecessary delay in such cases, LiveLaw reports the court as saying:
“This aspect assumes greater significance in motor accident claim proceedings, where the claimant is a victim of a road accident who has already suffered bodily injury, permanent disability or, in appropriate cases, loss of life of a family member. The object of such proceedings is to provide expeditious and just compensation to the victim. Unnecessary prolongation of such proceedings, without any sustainable ground for interference, would only aggravate the hardship already suffered by the victim”.
What claimants and insurers can take from the decision
- For claimants: Income from a business or profession can be relevant even if the person is also a student or is not a permanent employee. Returns may help establish income, but the reported decision does not say they stand alone or settle every dispute.
- For insurers or other challengers: A claim that returns are false is stronger when supported by evidence and raised in the proceedings, rather than left as a bare assertion.
- For both sides: Whether future prospects apply and how compensation is calculated depend on the case and governing authorities; this report does not give a percentage to apply across cases.
This account relies on secondary reports from LiveLaw and CourtBook, not the full judgment. It covers the reported holdings and does not attempt to reproduce the court’s complete reasoning or calculation.
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