SWAPNA ROY Vs. NEW INDIA ASSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Assailing the judgment and order dated 18.8.2006 passed by learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Calcutta in M.A.C.C. Case No. 212 of 2005 this appeal has been preferred by the widow and the three sons of the deceased. The Tribunal by its impugned judgment and order under appeal disbelieved the income capacity of the deceased and based his finding on notional income and returned the award of Rs. 90,000. Apart from applying the default clause of interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum, he was of the view that "...considering the facts and circumstances of the present case, at this stage I am not awarding any interest in favour of claimants..."

(2.) Mr. Chakraborty, appearing for the appellants, has argued the appeal in great details. He has taken us through the entire records and wondered as to whether the finding of the learned Tribunal based on notional income can be maintained. For this purpose Mr. Chakraborty took us to Part-II of the Paper Book including the Supplementary Application being C.A. No. 1313 of 2010 to show that there was an income of the deceased, which the learned Tribunal did not take into account. He also submitted that succession certificate of the estate of her late husband was also obtained which shows that he had some income.

(3.) Furthermore, Mr. Chakraborty has submitted from the claim petition as well as from the evidence of PW 1 that all documents pertaining to his income and other papers used to be carried by the deceased, at the time of the accident, the same was misplaced for which purpose a G.D. Entry, Exh. 8, before the concerned police station was lodged. Yet, despite the deceased having an income, which transpires from the documents in the supplementary application as well as from Part-II of the Paper Book, Mr. Chakraborty submitted that the learned Tribunal came to such a finding which was absolutely improper. He referred to the Division Bench decision of this court in Sabita Singha v. National Council of Regional Scheme Centre, 2007 1 WbLR 184 and submitted even though the income of the deceased has been shown as Rs. 14,000 per month (claim petition) as well as from the evidence of the widow (A-1) of the deceased, assessment on notional income was absolutely wrong on the part of the Tribunal.