NARENDER SINGH Vs. SUDARSHAN KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this decision, I propose to dispose of three appeals being FAO No. 148/1997 (treated as the main appeal), FAO No. 149/1997 and FAO No. 263/1997.

(2.) On the night intervening 26th/27th June, 1981, a bus carrying some pilgrims to Ujjain fell in the Shipra River near the city. Several people died in the accident including Randhir Singh aged about 52 years, his wife Krishna Devi aged about 45 years and their son Devender Singh aged about 18 years. The bus was driven by Kaptan Singh and was owned by Sudershan Kumar, who has since expired (represented now by his LRs Respondents No.4 to 8). The Appellants, who are the sons and daughter of Randhir Singh, filed three claim petitions before the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (for short the Tribunal) under the provisions of Section 110-A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (for short the Act) claiming compensation for the accidental deaths. Petition No. 307/85 relates to the death of Devender Singh and from the Award of the learned Tribunal dated 26th November, 1996 FAO No. 263/1997 has been filed. Petition No.308/85 relates to the death of Randhir Singh out of which FAO No.149/97 has arisen and Petition No. 309/85 relates to the death of Krishna Devi out of which FAO No.148/97 has arisen.

(3.) As per the claim petition Randhir Singh was a teacher in a school run by the Delhi Administration. He was drawing a salary of Rs.1,667/- per month and his age of superannuation was 60 years. In other words he still had about 8 years of service left before his superannuation. Randhir Singh's widow Krishna Devi was a housewife, and was also cultivating some agricultural land belonging to the family. It was alleged that the entire family was earning about Rs.60,000/- per annum from agricultural land. Devender Singh was a student at the time of his death.