CHANDA JAIN Vs. MUNNA KHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two appeals, one by the claimants and the other by the insurer of the vehicle involved in the accident resulting in the death of a person, arise out of the same award and are, therefore, being disposed of by this common order.

(2.) THE undisputed facts in brief are that on 28.9.1988, on Morena - Sabalgarh road, about 3 kms. away from Joura an accident between a Jeep bearing registration No. CIG -191 and a motor -cycle bearing No. USG - 6418, occurred resulting in the death of the driver of the motor -cycle, viz , Shri A.K. Jain son of PC. Jain. The claimants were the widow, daughter and two sons and the mother of the deceased, A.K. Jain. He was employed as Assistant Engineer in the State Govt. of Madhya Pradesh. The widow, daughter and two sons of the deceased had filed a claim petition and the mother of the deceased had filed another claim petition before the learned Claims Tribunal and their claims were decided by the same impugned award dated 26.4.1993 by the Third Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Morena.

(3.) AS far as the monthly income of the deceased was concerned, Ex. P -1 was a communication from the concerning Disbursing Officer of the deceased mentioning that Rs. 2, 947/ - was the due salary of the deceased for the concerning month i.e. the month in which he died. The death occurred on 28th of the month and, therefore, it is possible that this amount was only for 28 days. The widow of the deceased viz., claimant Chanda Jain has, in her statement, clearly admitted that the deceased was giving only Rs. 2,300/ - per month for expenses which means that it must have been the net amount received in cash by him i.e. after deduction of General Provident Fund, etc. This is a settled law that deductions on account of GPF, GIS and House Rent, etc. are not to be made while calculating the monthly income of the deceased because they are actually either his savings or on account of monthly expenses like rent, etc. Therefore, the monthly salary of the deceased could easily be taken at Rs. 3,000/ - per month.