RELIANCE GENERAL INSURANCE Vs. VIJAYAKUMARI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appeal and the Cross Objection are originated from an Award passed by Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Ottappalam (for short 'the Tribunal') on 21.01.2016 in O.P.(M.V.) No.452/14 . The appeal was preferred by the insurer contending that the Tribunal went wrong in fixing the monthly income notionally as Rs.7,000/- and arriving at the multiplicand by adding 50% to it in consideration of future prospects.

(2.) According to Smt.Santhi, the learned counsel for the insurer, the victim of the motor accident who succumbed to the injuries being a student of final year Diploma, aged 21 years, the Tribunal ought not to have fixed the monthly income notionally as Rs.7,000/- and added 50% of it in consideration of future prospects to arrive at the multiplicand. According to him, a sum lesser than Rs.7,000/- ought to have been taken and 40% of it ought to have been added to it. Contentions were also raised to the effect that the sum awarded as compensation for loss of dependency and loss of love and affection and the rate of interest ordered as payable for the amount awarded as compensation are also on the higher side.

(3.) The learned counsel has also called attention of this Court to a legitimate claim that the Cross Objection having been preferred before this Court by the Claimants after a lapse of five years from the date of filing of the appeal by the insurer, this Court ought not to have ordered interest for the period of delay. According to her, the direction to pay interest ought to have been confined to the period of pendency of the claim petition, excluding the period of delay occurred in filing the Cross Objection.