MADHUMITA SARKAR Vs. ORIENTAL INSURANCE COM LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is at the instance of claimants in a proceeding under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act and is directed against an award dated 5th March, 2005 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal and the Additional District judge, First Court, West Midnapur, in M. A. C. Case No. 967 of 2003 thereby disposing of the said proceeding by awarding a sum of Rs. 5,09,500/- as compensation in spite of his specific finding that the appellants were entitled to get Rs. 20,00,000/- as compensation. The reason for reducing the amount is that the business of the victim, at present, after his death, continues to be run by his wife, appellant No. 1, after the licence of the Petrol Pump run by the victim has been transferred to the appellant No. 1. The Tribunal held that for the aforesaid reason, the claimant should only be entitled to get twenty-five percent of such dependency-loss.

(2.) BEING dissatisfied, the claimants have come up with the present appeal. None appears on behalf of the Insurance Company in spite of service of notice of appeal.

(3.) THE only point raised by Mr. Mandal, the learned advocate appearing on behalf of the appellants, in this appeal is that the learned Tribunal below erred in law in reducing the assessed amount to twenty-five percent of the same simply because the widow of the victim is now running the business of the victim after the licence has been transferred in her name. Mr. Mandal submits that the fact that the widow is running the business by her own skill and labour is not a ground for reduction of the just amount of compensation payable for the death of the victim for the rash and negligent driving of the driver of the offending vehicle. Therefore, the only question that arises for determination in this appeal is whether the learned Tribunal below was justified in reducing the assessed amount to twenty-five percent of the same after taking into consideration the fact that similar business is now being run by the widow of the victim. Before proceeding to answer the said question, we keep on record that the victim, aged 42 years, used to run a business of Petrol Pump in the name of gitanjali Filling Station on the basis of licence granted by Hindustan Petroleum co. Ltd. From that business, his annual income varied between Rs. 2,23,936/-and Rs. 1,87,719/- as it appears from the Income Tax return submitted by the victim for the assessment years 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 and those were marked as Ext. 4 and 4b respectively. After the death of the victim, the said licence has been transferred to the name of the widow of the victim and at present, she has been running the said business. Apart from the widow, the deceased has left two minor daughters.