R. MARAGATHAM Vs. S. RAMESH BABU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appeal is filed by the claimants, aggrieved over the inadequacy of compensation awarded by the Tribunal. The first appellant is the wife, the second and third appellants are the daughters of the deceased. They filed a claim petition before the Tribunal claiming a sum of Rs.10,00,000.00 as compensation. The deceased was aged 45 years at the time of accident and was claimed to be a fitter earning a sum of Rs.6,000.00 per month. The Tribunal has taken the monthly income of the deceased at Rs.3,000.00 and deducting 1/3rd of the amount towards personal expenses of the deceased, quantified the annual dependency at Rs.24,000.00 and adopting the multiplier of 14, the loss of dependency has been assessed at Rs.3,36,000.00. Awarding a sum of Rs.10,000.00 towards loss of consortium, Rs.15,000.00 towards loss of love and affection and Rs.3,000.00 towards transport and funeral expenses, the total compensation has been quantified at Rs.3,64,000.00 with interest at 7.5% p.a. from the date of petition.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the appellants submitted that the Tribunal is not correct in deducting 1/3rd towards personal expenses of the deceased when the claimants are three in number, and especially when the daughters are at the marriageable age, the Tribunal ought to have deducted only 1/4th of the amount towards personal expenses and not 1/3rd.

(3.) THE next contention of the appellants is that the Tribunal disregarded the Salary Certificate filed as Ex.P7, especially when P.W.3 had been examined to speak about the salary part of the deceased.