UMMANNA URF UMAPATHI Vs. M R NAVEEN SHANKAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) MOTOR Accidents Claims tribunal, Bangalore, has allowed M. V. C. No. 438 of 1996 in part and awarded a sum of Rs. 1,98,000 with interest at 6 per cent per annum from the date of petition till the date of deposit towards compensation for the death of Bramarambika, wife of the appellant No. 1 and mother of the rest of the appellants who fell victim to a road accident. The claimants-appellants have sought a suitable enhancement of the amount of compensation in this appeal.

(2.) THE deceased Bramarambika was travelling in a Tempo bearing registration no. KA 06-4961 on Bangalore-Tumkur road. When the said Tempo reached near boodihal Gate, a bus owned by respondent no. 1 and insured with the respondent No. 2 National Insurance Co. Ltd. came from the wrong side and dashed against the said tempo in which the deceased was travelling. The collision so caused resulted in serious bodily injuries to the deceased who was removed to the hospital for treatment where she died. In due course, the husband and children of the deceased filed a claim petition before the Tribunal for payment of compensation. The case of the claimants as set out in the claim petition was that the accident in question had taken place entirely due to rash and negligent driving of the bus by its driver. The claim was opposed by the respondents giving rise to 3 issues which the Tribunal has in terms of the impugned judgment decided in favour of the claimants-appellants. The Tribunal has held that the accident had indeed taken place on account of the rash and negligent driving of the bus by its driver entitling the claimants to recover compensation from the respondents. On the question of payment of compensation, Tribunal has held that the claimants' prayer for treating their claim as one made under section 163-A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 read with second Schedule to the said Act could not be granted having regard to the observations made by Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of U. P. State Road Trans. Corpn. v. Trilok Chandra, 1996 ACJ 831 (SC ). The Tribunal, all the same, proceeded to determine the amount of compensation by applying the multiplier system generally followed in fault cases and after holding that income of the deceased was Rs. 1,000 per month or Rs. 12,000 per annum capitalised the said amount by applying a multiple of ' 14'. The total amount awarded on account of loss of dependency thus came to Rs. 1,68,000 to which Claims Tribunal added Rs. 10,000 each towards loss of love and affection, loss to the estate and loss of consortium to take the total amount of compensation to Rs. 1,98,000. Appellants are not satisfied with the said amount and have accordingly appealed to this court for a suitable enhancement in the same.

(3.) APPEARING for appellants, Mr. A. K. Bhat strenuously argued that the Tribunal was in error in holding that the claim made by the appellants could not be treated as one in terms of section 163-A of the Motor vehicles Act. He urged that although the apex Court had in the decision referred to earlier made certain observations suggesting that ready-reckoner provided in the second Schedule to the Act was not workable, the courts could nevertheless pickup the principles applicable from the said ready-reckoner to determine and award compensation on the basis thereof. He has urged that section 163-A of Motor Vehicles act read with the Second Schedule, inter alia, provided that income of the deceased spouse could be taken to be 1/3rd of the income of the earning surviving spouse. He submitted that if the income of appellant no. 1 was Rs. 5,500 or so per month 1/3rd of the said amount could be taken as the income of the deceased for the purpose of payment of compensation. He submitted that in terms of the ready-reckoner, the multiple applicable in the case of any victim who was 40 years old would be '16' thereby meaning that the said multiple could be adopted after deducting a suitable amount towards personal expenses of the deceased from out of her income determined by reference to the Schedule as indicated earlier.