Overview
- On Thursday the Supreme Court created a distinct compensation head called “loss of domestic care,” fixed a minimum value of Rs 30,000 per month and applied it to raise a 2001 award to about Rs 62.77 lakh.
- The court ordered the Rs 30,000 floor to be revised upward by 10% cumulatively every three years and said the sum must be added to any proven monetary earnings of a homemaker.
- The bench told chief justices of all high courts to monitor motor‑accident cases and urged tribunals to follow the Motor Vehicles Act’s summary procedure so claims are ordinarily decided within one year.
- Tribunals, insurers and lower courts will need to change calculation schedules and precedents, a shift likely to increase compensation in many pending and future MACT claims.
- The judgment, which cited estimates that unpaid caregiving contributes roughly 15–17% of India’s GDP, builds on earlier compensation rules such as the Pranay Sethi framework and follows recent high‑court decisions recognising homemakers’ economic value.