Gangtok, July 16 -- The Sikkim High Court has directed United India Insurance Company Ltd to pay Rs 21.89 lakh in compensation to the parents of a labourer who died in a road accident in April 2023, setting aside an earlier order by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT).

Justice Bhaskar Raj Pradhan held that the deceased was a workman covered under the vehicle's insurance policy, not a gratuitous passenger as previously determined by the tribunal.

The case relates to an accident that occurred on April 20, 2023, when the deceased was travelling in a vehicle from Rorathang to Bering in East Sikkim.

The MACT had rejected the compensation claim filed under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, ruling that the deceased had taken ...