UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO LT Vs. SHAKUNTLA DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY virtue of this application, the Appellant United India Insurance Co. Limited seeks permission to lead additional evidence. It wants to prove the report of the investigator forwarded to the Advocate by a letter dated 11.10.2011.

(2.) A perusal of the record shows that the claim petition was filed on 18.09.2009. Before that date AIR (Accident Information Report) had already been filed and its copy was received by the Appellant insurance company. Obviously alongwith AIR copy of the driving license of the driver was also received. In any case a copy of driving license was filed by the Respondent No.1 on 18.09.2009 along with the claim petition. The Appellant put an appearance and filed written statement on 28.01.2010. The Appellant had sufficient time to obtain verification report. By an order dated 15.09.2011 the Appellant was given last opportunity to produce its evidence on the next date i.e.31.10.2011. The counsel for the Appellant Insurance Company himself closed the Appellant's evidence on 31.10.2011. In the circumstances, the Appellant has not been able to make out a case for leading additional evidence in appeal.

(3.) WITH the consent of counsel for parties the appeal is taken up for final disposal. In view of the dismissal of the application for additional evidence, the only ground raised by learned counsel for the Appellant is that Respondents No.5, 6 and 7 were the deceased's married daughters and Respondent No.3 was the deceased father. They were not financially dependent on the deceased and therefore there should be 1/3rd deduction towards personal and living expenses instead of 1/5th taken by the Tribunal. The deceased's father (the Respondent No.3) was aged 75 years, I would consider him financially dependent on the deceased. At the same time respondents No.5, 6 and 7 were married daughters and happily staying with their respective husbands and they were not financially dependent on the deceased. The deceased was aged 53 years, the deduction towards personal expenses ought to have been 1/4th (considering the number of dependants as four) instead of 1/5th. The loss of dependency is recomputed as 20,13,462/- (Rs. 20,338/- per month x 12 x ? x 11)