ORIENTAL INSURANCE CO. LTD. Vs. PAWAN KUMAR SHARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment shall decide the present appeal preferred by the appellant/Oriental Insurance Company Ltd., in terms of Sec. 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988[MV Act], assailing the common Impugned judgment cum award dtd. 16/12/2013 passed by the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Rohini, Delhi[Tribunal], in MACT Nos. 1075/07 and 1076/07[Claim Petition], titled as 'Pawan Kumar Sharma Vs. Sita Ram & Ors.', in so far as the quantum of compensation awarded to the claimant husband on the death of his young wife aged about 30 years in the motor accident that occurred on 4/9/2007.

(2.) Shorn of unnecessary details, deceased Mrs. Seema Sharma and Master Arijit Sharma aged 2.5 years i.e., the wife and child of the claimant died in a motor accident when the car driven by the claimant husband was hit by the offending Truck bearing registration No. HR38D-3197 driven by respondent no. 2 Sita Ram (Respondent No. 2 herein), who was held to be responsible for driving it in a rash and negligent manner. The claimant filed three claim petitions bearing MACT No. 1075/07, 1076/07 and 1077/07 before the learned MACT, Rohini, Delhi on 15/12/2007 seeking compensation for the death of his wife and son besides injuries to himself and impleaded the insurer (appellant herein) of the offending vehicle as well as the owner and the driver of the offending vehicle in the aforesaid claim petitions.

(3.) As regards the quantum of compensation on account of death of the wife, the learned Tribunal relied upon the testimony of PW1 (claimant-husband) and PW2 (employer) to hold that the deceased/wife was working as an Executive-Advertisement Operator in M/s Metropolitan Media Co. Pvt. Ltd from 19/12/2006 till her death, drawing a salary of Rs.2,42,174.00 per annum and was an income tax assessee. The appointment and monthly salary of the deceased was proved by PW2 vide appointment letter dtd. 19/12/2006 and the salary statement of the employer company i.e. M/s Metropolitan Media Co. Pvt. Ltd. (Ex. PW2/A and PW2/B). Accordingly, the monthly salary of the deceased reckoned to be as Rs.14,133.00 per month for the purposes of assessment of compensation inter alia assuming that the employer would be paying the salary after deduction of tax in terms of decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Vimal Kanwar v. Kishore Dans,Civil Appeal No. 5513 of 2012 decided on May 03, 2013. in which it was held that " it is duty of the employer to deduct TDS from the salary of the employee and in case income of the victim is only from "salary", the presumption would be that employer had deducted the tax from the salary of employee."