P P GOPALAN Vs. T GANESAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE parents and siblings of Parvathi, a 17 years old girl who lost her life in a road traffic accident, have filed this appeal complaining that the compensation awarded by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal for the death of Parvathi is inadequate. Parvathi, it is urged, was a very prompt student and was the only girl child in the family. It is urged that the dependency compensation as well as the compensation awarded by the Tribunal under various heads is quite inadequate. We find that as against a claim for a total compensation of Rs.8,29,000/- under various heads, the Tribunal awarded total amount of Rs.2,65,500/-.

(2.) HAVING heard the submissions addressed before us by the learned counsel for the appellants and having carefully gone through impugned award, we are of the view that there is some inadequacy in the compensation awarded by the Tribunal under the various heads. We find that towards expenses for transport to the hospital from the place of accident, the learned Tribunal awarded only Rs.500/-. We award a further amount of Rs.1,500/- towards the appellants under that head. Towards medical and treatment expenses a sum of Rs.12,000/- is seen awarded. It is urged that the medical bills produced by the appellants were not taken into account by the learned Tribunal. We find that the deceased was in the hospital for about 90 days. HAVING considered the fact that the deceased was in the hospital for about 90 days, we are of the view that towards attendant expenses itself, the appellants should have been awarded Rs.18,000/-. We award to the appellants Rs.18,000/- towards bystander's expenses. For calculating the dependency compensation the monthly income of the deceased, who was a student, has been notionally taken by the Tribunal as Rs.2,000/- only. We are of the view that the notional monthly income of Rs.2,000/- adopted by the learned Tribunal is too low. We are inclined to adopt the monthly income of the deceased notionally as Rs.3,000/- per month. At that same time we find force in the submission of Sri. Rajan P.Kaliath founded on the principles of the Supreme Court in Sarla Verma v. Delhi Transport Corporation (2010 (2) KLT 802 SC) that the proper deduction towards the personal expenses of the deceased to be made is one half. We recalculate the dependency compensation in that manner . This means that the appellants will be entitled for 26,000/- more towards that head. We award Rs.26,000/- towards dependency compensation.