Tips earned by a waiter count as income while fixing motor accident compensation, Punjab and Haryana High Court holds

12 November 2026

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that tips a waiter earns regularly form part of his income when motor accident compensation is assessed.
Justice Mandeep Pannu decided the matter in United India Insurance Company Limited versus Vipin Kumar.
The claimant worked as a waiter and suffered one hundred per cent permanent disability in a road accident.
The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal at Chandigarh had taken his monthly income as Rs 12,000 — a salary of Rs 8,000 plus about Rs 4,000 in tips — and awarded Rs 38,77,360.
The insurer argued that only the Rs 8,000 shown in the salary certificate should count.
The court said that money reaching a worker from customers rather than through the employer's fixed salary does not stop being earnings, and the insurer had produced nothing to dispute the tips.
It relied on a Delhi High Court ruling that treated tips as a usual part of hospitality work.
The appeal was dismissed and the tribunal's award upheld.