Hisar: The compensation they had waited years for finally came through, but the parents who fought for it were no longer alive to receive the relief.In a poignant case highlighting the human cost of delayed justice, the Punjab and Haryana high court enhanced compensation for the death of their son, Shakti Singh, more than two decades after the accident. However, the petitioners, Jaiprakash and his wife Parmeshwari Devi, Shakti Singh’s parents, are no longer alive to enjoy the fruits of justice.While Jaiprakash died in 2014, Parmeshwari Devi passed away just five or six days after the verdict.Senior advocate Jagbir Dalal said Shakti was returning home on his bicycle on March 15, 2001, when a van belonging to Maharaja Agrasen Medical Education and Research Society hit him from behind near the fish-breeding centre on the Sirsa road in Hisar.The van was being driven by the Society’s driver, Shivnath. Shakti sustained serious injuries and was taken to the civil hospital and then to a private hospital, where he died on March 16, Dalal added.The tragedy left the family devastated. Jaiprakash and Parmeshwari Devi subsequently pursued compensation through the courts. On June 14, 2004, a Hisar court awarded them Rs 1 lakh compensation and directed that the amount be kept in a fixed deposit for 12 months.The parents received the amount a year later, but they challenged the award, seeking higher compensation.An appeal was filed in the Punjab and Haryana high court on Sept 13, 2004. However, the wait stretched on. Jaiprakash died on Oct 14, 2014, around 10 years after the appeal was filed, without seeing the case reach its outcome.On Oct 8, 2026, Justice Amarinder Singh Grewal enhanced the compensation from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3,85,468. The court also ordered interest at 7.5% per annum from the date of filing the appeal until payment.But the verdict brought little comfort to the family. Parmeshwari Devi died five or six days after the judgement. The enhanced compensation was reportedly deposited in the bank only recently, after both parents had passed away.The case has renewed questions about delays in compensation proceedings, where financial relief is intended to support families after the loss of a breadwinner.‘Justice delayed is justice denied’Jagbir Singh Dalal, former vice-chairperson of the Bar Council of India, said the case illustrated the adage that delayed justice amounts to denial of justice.The purpose of laws providing compensation to families of accident victims was to ensure that dependants did not have to beg for their livelihood after losing a family member, he said.“When a decision on compensation takes decades, and those entitled to relief die while waiting, the delay becomes a cruel joke on the affected family,” Dalal said.He called for prescribing a time limit for deciding accident-compensation cases and appeals, saying this would help ensure timely relief to bereaved families and fulfil the law’s intended purpose.
