REENA MANJULA Vs. SUKHDEV SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) One Suresh Kanta, deceased mother of appellant was a teacher. On 19.12.72, she was standing at a DTC bus stop when respondents truck fatally knocked her down. Appellant applied for compensation to MAC Tribunal who adopted multipler of 20 and dependency at Rs. 200.00 p. m. and gave award of Rs. 48000.00 Appellant appealed against this]. After detailing above, judgment is :-

(2.) A D.B. of this Court in Dewan Hari Chand v. M.C.D. AIR 1981 Delhi 71 laid down various guidelines for determining the compensation. In para 4 it held, "the law applicable to the claim for compensation is the common law of torts as modified by the statutes in India. The first such modification was made by the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855. It is only that Act which provided payment of compensation in favour of the dependents of the deceased killed in a fatal accident. The provisions of Motor Vehicles Act only provide a forum and a procedure for the claim for compensation."

(3.) Regarding the figure per annum to be fixed as the amount of dependency, it held in para 10, "the dependence of the L.R.s. of the deceased is called in this context 'dependency.' It means the measure of maintenance or support which the dependent received from the deceased. It may be calculated annually. Two methods can be used to calculate it. One is to calculate the actual number of years for which the deceased and the dependent were expected to live and to total up the figure of annual dependency for that number of years. Since the dependency was receivable from the deceased by the dependents in annual instalments, a deduction on the ground of acceleration would have to be made from such a total when the court grants compensation in one lump sum payable forthwith. Further deduction will have to be made from such sum by taking into account the risk of illness or incapacity shortening the working life of the deceased and fatal accidents shortening the actual longevity of the deceased. To avoid these numerous calculations, another method is adopted and has become the standard one. It is to arrive at a figure which would represent the purchase of "the dependency for years which would be much shorter than the number of years for which the deceased was to live." This view of the D B was based upon the various decisions of the Supreme Court reported in Gobald Motor Service v. R.M K Velusami, AIR 1962 SC.1 MCD v. Subbagwanti AIR SC1750; C.K. Subramania v. T Kunhi Kuttan Nair AIR 1970 SC 376, M.P.S.R T v. Sudhakar AIR 1977 SC 1189 and Mrs. Manjushri v. B L. Gupta AIR 1977 SC 1158.