Boy's Death Compensation Case: MP High Court Says Tribunal Was Wrong, Aadhaar Not Age Proof
The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently ruled that an Aadhaar card cannot be treated as conclusive proof of a person’s age. The court stated that a postmortem report is a more reliable indicator of age.
While hearing an appeal filed by the boy’s parents, seeking enhancement of the Rs 5.45 lakh compensation awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), Bhind, in September 2022, the court observed that an Aadhaar Card is primarily an identity document and cannot, by itself, be treated as conclusive proof of the age of its holder.
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The tribunal had determined the boy’s age as 14 years, 7 months and 9 days on the basis of his Aadhaar card. However, the insurance company challenged this finding, pointing out that the postmortem report recorded his age as 13 years.
The Court also considered the multiplier to be applied while calculating compensation. The insurance company argued that a multiplier of 15, instead of 18, should apply since the boy was below 15 years of age.
The parents opposed this, relying on a 2025 Supreme Court judgment in Ku Aarti v. Udayveer Singh (2025), in which a multiplier of 18 was applied in a case involving the death of a nine-year-old child.
