REBATI MAJHI Vs. SANTOSH SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is the claimant's appeal for enhancement of compensation.

(2.) THE brief facts of the case are that appellant No. 1 is the widow, appellant Nos. 2 to 6 are the sons and daughters and appellant Nos. 7 and 8 are the parents of deceased Hanu Majhi who died on 21.2.92 on account of the injuries received in a vehicular accident. Before the Tribunal the owner was proceeded exparte and the claim was contested by the insurer. Accepting the case of the claimants that the accident was due to rash and negligent driving of the driver of the truck bearing registration No. AXA 3647, the claimants were held to be entitled to compensation. The dependency was assessed at Rs. 1,100 per month and by adopting multiplier of 'nine', compensation was assessed at Rs. 1,17,000. Hence this appeal for enhancement.

(3.) ACCORDINGLY keeping in mind the comparable cases, the multiplier ought to have been in the vicinity of 'fifteen' and I feel that the compensation ought to have been determined accordingly. Thus, by taking the loss of dependency at Rs. 1,100 per month and adopting 'fifteen' as the multiplier, the compensation comes to Rs. 1,98,000. To this should be added a sum of Rs. 5,000 towards loss of consortium payable to appellant No. 1, widow and a sum of Rs. 2,000 towards loss to estate. Under the circumstances, Rs. 2,05,000 would be the just compensation which the claimants ought to have been awarded. Accordingly, the award is enhanced by Rs. 88,000. This amount shall carry interest at the rate of 10 per cent per annum from the date of application till the date of deposit.