SHANTA DEVI Vs. CHARCHAL SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) One Dharam Singh Tyagi, a 37 year old practicing Advocate died in a road accident on 21.11.1970. His LRs filed a claim suit claiming a compensation of Rs.2 lakhs with 12% p.a. interest.But MACT assessed the income of the deceased at Rs.700.00 and deducted Rs.200 from it to work-out dependency at Rs.500.00 and applied a multiplier of 14 to it, awarding compensation of Rs.67,950.00 after making some deductions.

(2.) Appellants filed FAO 327/80 for enhahcement and respondents 1 and 4 also filed cross objections in it wanting the award of compensation to be restricted to Rs.15000/. First Appellate Court, however, upheld the assessment of income of deceased made by tribunal but raised the multiplier from 14 to 24 to award compensation of Rs.1.44 lakhs with 12% p.a. interest.

(3.) Appellants still felt dis-satisfied with this and have filed this appeal for further enhancement of compensation.Their counsel Mr. Goyal has taken us through the evidence on record to show that the deceased was earning between Rs.1000.00 to Rs.3000.00 per month and was running an office of his own. He referred to testimony of widow of the deceased and his clerk (Public Witness10) and also Office Incharge of the Bar Association (Public Witness 8) and prayed for his income being assessed at Rs.2,000.00 in the least. He also placed reliance on some judgments of various High Courts to urge that the Court was required to award just and fair compensation which could exceed the amount claimed by claimants. He also cited some Supreme Court judgments awarding compensation between Rs.2 lakhs to 5 lakhs in cases involving labour and students where no known income was assessable. It is not necessary to quote from the judgments cited because principles initiated in these are by and large well established and their applicability depends on the facts and circumstances of the case.