GEETA Vs. NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY way of the present appeal the appellants claimants seek to challenge the award dated 23. 10. 2003 so as to seek enhancement in the compensation amount over and above the amount of Rs. 3,60,000/- awarded by the Tribunal.

(2.) BRIEF summary of the facts are as under: on 26. 9. 1995 at about 8:30 p. m. the deceased Sh. Satish Kumar was coming from Najafgarh when reached Arjun Park near State Bank of India, Nagli sakrawaton on Main Najafgarh Road, he got down from the auto rikshaw to purchase bidi and when he was coming back to the scooter, all of a sudden Sh. Raj Sharma respondent No. 2 started his autorikshaw. Sh. Satish was hit by the said auto rikshaw, as a result of which he received fatal injuries and was taken to DDU hospital where he was declared as "brought dead".

(3.) COUNSEL assailed the award and submitted that the Tribunal erred in not taking salary of the deceased at Rs. 4,000/- per month when the same was duly proved on record. Counsel for appellants contended that wrong multiplier of 15 has been applied by the Tribunal although keeping in view the age of the deceased, the correct multiplier as per the Second Schedule of the Motor vehicles Act is 18. The contention of the counsel for the appellant is that the deceased was a young man of 28 years and was survived by his widow and two minor children besides his father. Counsel thus contended that for the age between 25 to 30 years, the applicable multiplier is 18.