KARI DEVI Vs. DESH RAJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ADMIT.

(2.) With the consent of the parties, the matter has been heard and disposed of by this order. The appellants have filed this appeal for enhancement of compensation awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal for the death of the husband of appellant no.1 and father of appellants 2 to 5 in a road accident caused by the rash and negligent driving of the offending vehicle by its driver. While awarding compensation, the Tribunal had taken the income of the deceased at Rs.1937.00 which were the minimum wages payable to an unskilled worker in the year 1998 and applying the multiplier of 9, a total compensation of Rs.1,56,400.00 was awarded in favour of the appellants. The grounds urged by learned counsel for the appellants to challenge the award are that (a) the Tribunal has not taken into consideration the future prospects in the life and career of the deceased to arrive at the loss of dependency to the family and (b) instead of the multiplier of 13 in terms of the Second Schedule to the Motor Vehicles Act, the Tribunal has applied the multiplier of 9.

(3.) It is submitted by learned counsel for the respondents that it had come in evidence that the age of the deceased was 50 years as is evident from the hospital records and the Tribunal has, therefore, rightly applied the multiplier of 9 to arrive at just compensation payable to the appellants.