RAVI KAUL Vs. HARI PARSHAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ADMIT.

(2.) The appellants have filed this appeal for enhancement of compensation for the death of wife of appellant No.1 and mother of appellant No.2 in a road accident caused by the rash and negligent driving of the offending vehicle by its driver. The only point urged by learned counsel for the appellants is that (1) in place of the multiplier of 17 in terms of the Second Schedule to the Motor Vehicles Act, the tribunal has applied the multiplier of 15 and (2) the tribunal has wrongly deducted half the income of the deceased towards her personal expenses and the balance is taken as the loss of dependency to the family of the deceased.

(3.) I find merits in the contentions raised by learned counsel for the appellant. For a person who had died between the age of 30 to 35 years, the correct multiplier to be applied in terms of the Second Schedule to the Motor Vehicles Act is 17. The deceased was 34 years at the time of her unfortunate death and the tribunal, therefore, ought to have applied the multiplier of 17 in place of 15, as has been applied in the present case. It is also not understood as to how the tribunal has taken half the income of the deceased as the amount which the deceased might have been spending upon herself during her lifetime. In my view, tribunal ought not have deducted more than 1/3rd from the income of the deceased towards her personal expenses and the balance should have been taken as the loss of dependency to the family of the deceased. The average income of the deceased has been taken by the tribunal as Rs.3,674.00 and deducting 1/3rd from the same, the loss of dependency to the family would come to Rs.2,450.00 per month or say Rs.29,400.00 per year. Applying the multiplier of 17 to the loss of dependency, the total loss of dependency to the family would come to Rs.4,99,800.00. Adding to this, another sum of Rs.10,200.00 towards non-pecuniary damages like loss of love and affection, loss of estate and funeral expenses, etc, the appellants will be entitled to total compensation of Rs.5,10,000.00. The appellants will also be entitled to the interest @ 9% per annum on the enhanced compensation from the date of filing of the application before the tribunal till payment.