BHARATBHAI RAMANBHAI PATEL Vs. RATANLAL SUKHLAL DHAKAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present First Appeal, under Sec. 173 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, is preferred by the appellants - original claimants, being aggrieved and dissatisfied with the common judgment and award dtd. 31/5/2007 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (Aux.), Nadiad in Motor Accident Claim Petition No. 88 of 2005, by which the Tribunal has awarded compensation of Rs. 1,54,500.00 with 7.5% per annum interest to the claimants, holding Opponents i.e. 1 &

(2.) i.e. owner and insurance company of the Truck liable, jointly and severally. 2. Brief facts of the case are as under:

(3.) Learned advocate Mr. Hiren Modi for the appellants - claimants has submitted that the Tribunal has committed an error in not properly calculating the amount of compensation. He has submitted that amount of award is on lower side as the Tribunal has not properly considered the various aspects; like income of the deceased, negligence, liability and family circumstances, etc. He has submitted that the deceased was serving in the Vimal Corporation and earning Rs. 3,000.00 per month. Therefore, the Tribunal ought to have considered Rs. 3,000.00 per month income of the deceased. He has submitted that the claim petition is under Sec. 163A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, therefore, looking to the age of the deceased i.e. 23 years at the time accident, 1/3rd deduction is required to be considered by the Tribunal. He has further submitted that the deceased was unmarried and there are three family members in his family. The claimants are the parents and younger brother of the deceased. The deceased was the elder son of the parents and was helping the family by doing job. He has also submitted that the Tribunal has committed an error by awarding meager compensation under the head of loss of estate and funeral expenses, which should be more in view of decisions of Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of : (i) Magma General Insurance Company Limited versus Nanu Ram and others reported in (2018) 18 SCC 130 (ii) New India Assurance Co. Ltd. v. Somwati and others, reported in 2020 (9) SCC 644 and (iii) United India Insurance Co. Ltd., versus Satinder Kaur @ Satwinder Kaur reported in (2021) 11 SCC 780. He has submitted that the compensation is required to be enhanced by modifying the award impugned accordingly and this appeal may be allowed.