SREEDHARAN PILLAI Vs. MURALEEKRISHNAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The claimants before the Tribunal are the appellants. They are the parents as well as the sister of deceased late Sri Sujith Kumar. The accident occurred on 18.02.2001 at 2.45 p.m. near Sankaramangalam Junction in Kollam-Alappuzha road. The deceased was travelling in a motor cycle bearing Reg. No. KL7X-996 along with Satheesh Kumar as pillion rider when the offending vehicle dashed against the same. He succumbed to the injuries. As against the total claim of Rs. 12,95,000/-, Rs. 1,80,500/- has been granted by the Tribunal.

(2.) The learned counsel for the appellants submitted that instead of correct multiplier 18, 11 alone has been taken as the multiplier by considering the age of the 1st appellant which is not the correct method going by the judgment in Sarla Verma v. Delhi Transport Corporation, 2010 2 KerLT 802 and the later decision of the Apex Court in Amrit Bhanu Shali v. National Insurance Co. Ltd, 2012 ACJ 2002. It is further pointed out that the future prospect of the deceased has not been considered.

(3.) It is explained by the learned counsel for the appellants that the deceased was aged 20 years and was a student in Degree level and had a part time job as collection agent in a laundry service and he was earning a monthly income of Rs. 2,250/-. Apart from the same, he was selected for undergoing the Basic Cabin Crew training conducted by the "Frankfinn Management Consultants". Ext.A24 is a letter dated 1.2.2001 which shows that he was selected to join that course. If he had completed the training, he would have earned at least Rs. 10,000/- per month by getting a proper employment. It is submitted that even if he is treated as a student then also a proper notional income should have been fixed for arriving at a fair compensation. Instead, the Tribunal rejected Ext.A24 and accepted the income that he was getting as per the part time job and then adopted the multiplier and towards loss of dependency, only Rs. 1,48,500/- has been granted and that amount has been arrived at after deducting 50% for personal expenses.