New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled that if a person dies in a road accident because of his own "rash and negligent driving", his family members cannot claim third-party insurance because insurers cannot be saddled with the liability in such cases.

The bench of Justices N.V. Ramana and S. Abdul Nazeer, however, said the deceased person was entitled to the compensation available under the insurance policy's "personal accident" cover.

The recent judgment came as the court set aside the Rs 10.57 lakh the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (MACT), Tripura, had awarded owner-driver Dilip Bhowmik's family, a compensation Tripura High Court had upheld.

"It is an admitted position that the deceased was the owner-cum-driver of the vehicle in question. The accident had occurred due to the rash and negligent driving of the vehicle by the deceased. No other vehicle was involved.... The deceased himself was responsible for the accident. The deceased being the owner of the offending vehicle was not a third party within the meaning of the (Motor Vehicles) Act...," the top court said.

"A claimant, in our view, cannot maintain a claim on the basis of his own fault or negligence and argue that even when he himself may have caused the accident on account of his own rash and negligent driving, he can nevertheless make the insurance company to pay for the same," Justice Abdul Nazeer, writing the judgment, said.

"Therefore, the respondents (legal heirs of the deceased)... could not have maintained the claim petition filed under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act."

Bhowmik was driving bck home in his truck when he met with the accident. He died during treatment.

The MACT awarded his family the compensation and the state's high court upheld it with a yearly 8 per cent interest from the date the claim petition was filed, prompting the insurance company, the public sector National Insurance Co. Ltd, to move the apex court.

The bench upheld the appeal filed by the company. It said the "high court was not justified in directing the appellant/insurer to pay the compensation determined by the tribunal", but told the insurer to pay Bhowmik's family Rs 2 lakh as personal accident cover plus interest.

"Since the indemnification extended to personal accident of the deceased is limited to Rs 2,00,000 under the contract of insurance, the respondents are entitled for the said amount towards compensation," the bench said in its judgment uploaded last week.

"Hence, the appellant is directed to deposit the said sum of Rs 2,00,000 with interest @ 9 per cent per annum from the date of the claim petition till the date of deposit with the tribunal within a period of four weeks from today."