Bombay High Court has allowed the father of a girl whom a road accident has left in a vegetative state to withdraw, pending hearing of an appeal, Rs 1.15 crore deposited with the court by Western Railway that owned the vehicle involved.
A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Gauri Godse in an interim order passed on October 6 observed that it cannot view such matters with the “clinical coldness” of a civil suit. A copy of the order was made available on Tuesday.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by a senior section engineering, signal construction, of Western Railway that owned the vehicle involved in the accident, challenging a February 2021 order passed by the Motor Accidents Claim Tribunal awarding compensation of Rs 69,92,156 to Nidhi Jethmalani.
“Here human lives are at stake. Futures are at stake; Nidhi’s future has been completely extinguished. It is for this reason that we believe that an interim order is not only permissible, but is absolutely necessary,” the court said.
