Compensation - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition compensation

Definition :

Compensation, according to dictionary it means, 'compensating or being compensated; thing given as recompense;'. In legal sense it may constitute actual loss or expected loss and may extend to physical mental or even emotional suffering, insult or injury or loss, Ghaziabad Development Authority v. Balbir Singh, (2004) 5 SCC 65 (75): AIR 2004 SC 2141.

--Making things equivalent, satisfying or making amends, a reward for the apprehension of criminals; also that equivalent in money which is paid to the owners and occupiers of lands taken or injuriously affected for public purposes and under Act of Parliament, e.g., the (English) Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 18), but where the land is acquired compulsorily by a Government Department or any local or Public Authority the compensation is regulated by the (English) Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act, 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5, c. 57) and Rules of 1919, and see Housing Act, 1936, ss. 40 and 42 and Schedules, and Lloyd or Cripps on Compensation, 7th Edn. Also (in Scots Law) a sort of right by set-off or stoppage, whereby a person who has been sued for a debt demands that the debt may be compensated with what is owing to him by the creditor.

See INTOXICATING LIQUORS; WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION; VALUATION; AGRICUL-TURAL HOLDING; and LANDLORD AND TENANT.

Means compensation as provided for by this Act. [Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 (8 of 1923), s. 2 (1) (c)]

The expression 'compensation' in s. 299 of the Government of India Act, 1935, means a 'just equivalent' of what the owner has been deprived of, N.B. Jeejeebhoy v. Assistant Collector, AIR 1965 SC 1096: (1965) 1 SCR 636.

A scrutiny of the amended Article 31 (2) discloses that it accepted the meaning of the expressions 'compensation' and 'principles' as defined by this Court in Bela Banerjee's case, (1954) SCR 558; P. Vajravelu Mudaliar v. Special Deputy Collector, AIR 1965 SC 1017: (1965) 1 SCR 614.

Means anything given to make things equal in value: anything given as an equivalent, to make amends for loss or damage. In all States where the rule of law prevails, the right to compensation is guaranteed by the Constitution or regarded as inextricably involved in the right to property, Rustom Cavasjee Cooper v. Union of India, (1970) 1 SCC 248: AIR 1970 SC 564: (1970) 3 SCR 531.

'Compensation' referred to in s. 10, in so far as it relates to a displaced person, obviously refers to the compensation for loss of his property in Pakistan and is not the recognition of a right to compensation for deprivation of his interest, if any, in the allotted property by cancellation, Amar Singh v. Custodian Evacuee Property, AIR 1957 SC 599: 1957 SCR 801. [Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1954, s. 10]

The word 'compensation' is derived from the Latin word 'compensare' meaning 'weight together' or 'balance', K.S.R.T.C. v. Mahadeva Shetty, (2003) 7 SCC 197 (203): AIR 2003 SC 172. (Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, s. 163A and Sch II)

In Black's Law Dictionary, 'compensation' is shown as equivalent in money for a loss sustained or giving back an equivalent in either money which is but the measure of value, or in actual value otherwise conferred, or recompense in value for some loss, injury or service especially when it is given by statute.' It means when you pay the compensation in terms of money it must represent, on the date of ordering such payment, the equivalent value, Ratni Menon v. Union of India, AIR 2001 SC 1333 (1337): (2001) 3 SCC 714. (Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, s. 163A and Sch. II)

The award of interest on the refunded amount is as per the statutory provisions of law as it them stood and on the peculiar facts and circumstances of each case. When a specific provision has been made under the statute. Such provision has to govern the field. Therefore, the court has to take all relevant factors into consideration while awarding the rate of interest on the compensation, Sandvik Asia Ltd. v. C.I.T., (2006) 2 SCC 508.

Means the return which is given for something else, recompense, remuneration as for services rendered by an officer, agent, attorney etc., remuneration for loss of time expenditure for permanent disability; amends for privation of a thing, an equivalent for property taken for a public use, A Dictionary of Law, William C. Anderson, 1889, p. 216.

In India compensation at not less than market value is required to be paid for acquiring land held by a person under his personal cultivation which is within the ceiling limit applicable to him under any law for the time being in force, Constitution of India, Art. 31.

Compensation, or purchase money are the same thing under different names, IRC v. Glasgow and South Western Rly. Co., (1887) 12 App Cas 315 (HL).

As per P. Ramanatha Aiyar's Advanced Law Lexicon, 3rd Edn., 2005 the word 'compensation' has been defined to mean an act which a court orders to be done or money which a court orders to be paid, by a person whose acts or omissions have caused loss or injury to another in order that thereby the person damnified may receive equal value for his loss or be made whole in respect of his injury, Sandvik Asia Ltd. v. Commissioner of Income Tax, AIR 2006 SC 1223.