YASHWANTI Vs. ISHWAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellants in this appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 seek enhancement of the compensation amount awarded to them by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal by its judgment and award dated 16th April, 2002 passed in Claim Petition No. 134/96.

(2.) THE facts relevant for the decision of the present appeal are that one Rajender Prasad Chauhan died in a road accident on 16.12.1995, leaving behind his widow and three children. THE deceased was employed in Government Co-Ed. Secondary School, Barwala, Delhi and was earning Rs. 7,346/- per month. A claim petition under Section 166 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 was filed by his aforesaid legal representatives claiming a sum of Rs. 10,00,000/- by way of compensation for his untimely demise. THE learned Claims Tribunal after appraisal of the evidence on record including the pay certificates produced from the school, Exhibit PW1/A and Exhibit P1, showing his income as Rs. 7,346/- per month, proceeded to calculate the compensation to be awarded to the appellants on the basis of the said income. THE Tribunal then went on to state that if the future increments were taken into consideration, the monthly income of the deceased could be roughly taken to be Rs. 8,000/- per month and that monthly dependency could be calculated by taking two-third (2/3rd) of this amount. THE Tribunal, thus, calculated the monthly dependency of the appellants to be Rs. 5,334/- and proceeded to capitalise the annual dependency by a multiplier of 11, thereby arriving at a figure of Rs. 7,04,088/-. To this, the conventional sum of Rs. 15,000/- was added towards the loss of consortium and loss of estate, and the appellants were held entitled to receive in all a sum of Rs. 7,19,088/- alongwith the interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of filing of the petition till the realization of the award.

(3.) IN the case of Smt. Sarla Verma (supra), the Honourable Supreme Court has laid down certain guidelines to be followed by Courts and Tribunals while computing the income of the deceased for the purpose of assessing the loss of dependency of his legal representatives. The guidelines with regard to addition to income for future prospects have been enunciated as under:-