India, April 29 -- The Bombay High Court has increased compensation for maritime engineer Rajesh Deshmukh, who died in a 2009 road accident in Odisha, to Rs.1.31 crore from Rs.10 lakh, ruling that the Tribunal wrongly assessed his income.

A single-judge bench of Justice Jitendra Jain held that the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) had incorrectly pegged Deshmukh's monthly income at Rs.8,000, citing the absence of a formal contract with Samson Maritime Ltd, at the time of the accident.

Deshmukh died on June 26, 2009, less than a week after joining the firm, when the jeep he was travelling in collided with a stationary truck while commuting from Bhubaneswar to Paradeep.

Following his death, his family approached the MACT, which award...