NIHAL SINGH AND ORS. Vs. PRATAP SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a Defendant's second appeal from the concurrent decisions of the courts below awarding Plaintiff -Respondent Rs. 800/ - as compensation for injuries inflicted on him by the Appellants.

(2.) THE facts are these. The Plaintiff alleged that he had a beehive on a neem tree standing on his plot of land and when his brother went to collect the honey from it the Defendants prevented him and when the Plaintiff went there to remonstrate with them they beat him severely and inflicted serious injuries on him. The Defendants were prosecuted and convicted by the Magistrate whose decision was upheld by the Sessions Judge, Thereupon the Plaintiff filed present suit claiming Rs. 1000/ -compensation.

(3.) MR . S.P. Kumar for the Appellants argued that the lower courts assessment of the amount of compensation was based on no data. He further argued that the courts below erred in considering the status of the Plaintiff in calculating the amount of compensation to which he was entitled. He also argued that the beating of the Plaintiff was a trivial matter and the court below had awarded excessive compensation by considering irrelevant matter. I do not agree The courts below while assessing the amount of compensation did not consider the status of the Plaintiff alone but also the nature of injuries inflicted on him. It found that the injuries were serious and the Plaintiff's thumb had been incapacitated. Secondly, I see nothing illegal in taking into account the status of the Plaintiff in awarding him the compensation. The Plaintiff had alleged in his plaint that he had been beaten in the presence of several persons which implied that he was claiming compensation not merely for injuries but for the public insult to him. The Appellant pleads that the incident was trivial. If a person gives a respectable person a slap in broad day light in the market place and afterwards pleads that damages should be nominal because a slap is trivial matter, the court is entitled to consider the status and class of the Plaintiff before deciding whether the wrong done to the Plaintiff is serious or trivial. Thus even the Defendant's plea cannot be considered without taking into account the status of the Plaintiff and the class to which he belongs.