Tribunal Orders BEST to Pay Rs 5.25 Crore to Family of Mahim Designer
The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal has directed the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport undertaking to pay nearly Rs 5.25 crore in compensation to the Mahim-based family of 55-year-old interior designer Hemant Joshi, who was killed in a 2018 road accident. The ruling represents one of the largest compensation orders issued against the civic transport body.
The incident took place along the Eastern Express Highway service road near Mulund. Joshi had made a brief stop to answer nature's call and was walking back across the road to his parked car when a speeding BEST bus knocked him down. He sustained fatal injuries in the crash.
During the tribunal proceedings, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, representing BEST, contended that Joshi was distracted by his mobile phone and failed to watch out for oncoming traffic. The tribunal rejected this defence after examining the police investigation records, the official chargesheet, and the eyewitness account of Joshi's assistant, ruling that the bus driver was solely negligent.
The legal process concluded after an eight-year trial that required multiple witness testimonies and counter-claims. Advocate Tushar Shingte noted that the Motor Vehicles Act operates as benevolent legislation designed to safeguard and compensate victims and their families. He explained that unlike criminal trials requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt, motor accident claims tribunals conduct summary proceedings decided on the preponderance of probabilities, typically granting the benefit of doubt to victims unless an FIR explicitly faults them.
The tribunal order comes alongside data revealing the scale of compensation paid out by the transport undertaking in recent years. Information obtained through a Right to Information application by activist Anil Galgali showed that BEST disbursed approximately Rs 42.4 crore across 494 accident cases involving injuries and fatalities between 2019 and 2024.
According to the RTI records, BEST paid Rs 9.55 crore for 140 cases in 2019-20, Rs 3.4 crore for 77 cases in 2020-21, and Rs 9.45 crore for 99 cases in 2021-22. Payouts peaked at Rs 12.4 crore across 107 cases in 2022-23, before settling at Rs 7.5 crore for 71 cases during 2023-24.
