MOHD AMEERUDDIN Vs. UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the claimants appeal by grant of special leave arising from a motor accident claim case. The appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated July 28, 2004, passed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Civil Miscellaneous Appeal No. 2081 of 2004. By the impugned order, the High Court partly allowed the appeal filed by the Insurance Company (the Respondent herein) and reduced the amount of compensation awarded by the Tribunal under the head "loss of earnings" from Rs. 5,00,000/- to Rs. 2,60,000/-.

(2.) The Appellants son namely, Aslamuddin died in a motor accident on October 22, 1997. He worked as a Cleaner on the lorry tanker that met with the accident. His parents, the present Appellants filed a claim application (O.P. No. 954 of 1997) before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (Additional District Judge), Nizamabad claiming Rs. 5,00,000/- as compensation for his death. Before the Tribunal, the proceedings were held ex parte against the owner of the tanker but the Respondent, the insurer of the vehicle appeared and resisted the claim of the Appellants. The Tribunal found that the accident took place due to rash and negligent driving by the driver of the tanker, it further found that at the time of death Aslamuddin was aged 20 years. He was getting a salary of Rs. 2,500/- per month besides batta (daily allowance) at the rate of Rs. 50/-. His monthly earning, thus, came to Rs. 4,000/- that is to say Rs. 48,000/- per annum. After deducting 1/3rd towards the personal expenses of the deceased, his net contribution to the claimants was held to be Rs. 32,000/- per annum.

(3.) The Tribunal further noticed that at the time of death Aslamuddin was unmarried and the age of his mother--claimant No. 2 was 40 years. It therefore, took the age of the mother of the deceased for the purpose Of assessing compensation. Applying the multiplier of 16 on the basis of the age of the mother of the deceased being 40 years, the Tribunal same to the figure (Rs. 3 2,000 × 16) of Rs. 5,12,000/-. However, since the claimants had only made a claim of Rs. 5,00,000/-, it awarded the slightly lesser amount as claimed by the Appellants.