Panchkula, Nov. 7 -- Over six years after a couple lost their eight-year-old son to a road accident, the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) in Panchkula has awarded them a compensation of Rs.16.89 lakh in two connected cases arising from the same mishap. The victim, Samar, a Class 3 student of Little Flower School, Sector 14, was described as a bright and active child, who regularly participated in school activities and functions. According to the petitions before MACT, on April 6, 2019, Suman Sharma was returning home on a scooter, with her minor children Palak and Samar riding pillion. Around 12.15 pm, when she was crossing the traffic lights at Sector 20, Panchkula, on a green signal, a white car, allegedly driven rashly and negligently, came from the Sector 20 side and hit their scooter. The impact threw Suman and her children off the overbridge, leaving them seriously injured. They were taken to the civil hospital in Sector 6. Samar was further referred to PGIMER, Chandigarh, where he succumbed to his injuries four days later on April 10, 2019. A case under Sections 279, 304-A, 337 and 338 of the Indian Penal Code was subsequently registered against the car driver, Abhishek Jindal of Dhakoli, Zirakpur, at the Sector 20 police station. Suman, then 35, told the tribunal that she was a housewife engaged in a small pickle business, earning Rs.15,000 per month. She sustained multiple fractures in her legs, pelvis, backbone, nasal bone and fibula, and remained admitted in hospitals till April 24, 2019. In her case, the tribunal awarded her Rs.4.92 lakh as compensation, observing that she had suffered 42% permanent locomotor disability in relation to her left leg. In a separate claim filed by Suman, her husband, Kuldeep Sharma, and their minor daughter for the death of Samar, the tribunal awarded Rs.11.97 lakh. The MACT held both respondents - Abhishek Jindal, driver of the offending vehicle, and his father, Jai Paul, its owner - jointly and severally liable to pay the compensation. The petitioners are also entitled to 6% annual interest from the date of filing of the petitions until realisation of the amount, the tribunal ruled in its order dated November 3. The respondents denied that any such accident had occurred, claiming that a false FIR had been registered and that they had been wrongly implicated. However, after examining the evidence, the tribunal ruled in favour of the claimants....