ORIENTAL INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. JOSUA HALLAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A boy named Albert Hallam, aged only 4 years 8 months and 21 days was knocked to death by a truck bearing No. AXA 5845 on 22.11.1995 when he went to shop on Assam-Agartala Road for buying a pen. The accident had taken place on the road when he was returning home. His parents Josua Hallam and Aruna Hallam instituted the claim case for an amount of Rs. 6,32,000, which was disposed of by the Tribunal awarding an amount of Rs. 3,86,000 by the impugned judgment and award dated 7.7.1999 in T.S. (MACT) No. 28 of 1995. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. and Gangaram Verma being the insurer and owner of the vehicle respectively preferred appeals under section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and a revision petition under Article 227 of the Constitution [Sic. section 115 of Civil Procedure Code] against the said judgment and award and both the cases are taken up together for disposal by a single judgment.

(2.) The appeal as well as the revision petition are directed against the amount of compensation, which was considered by the appellants-petitioners as unreasonably hefty considering the age of the deceased child. Referring to the decision reported in Haji Zainullah Khan v. Nagar Mahapalika, Allahabad, 1994 ACJ 993 (SC), where an amount of Rs. 1,50,000 was awarded for the death of a boy, aged 20 years and the decision of this court in M.A. (F) No. 153 of 1992 and M.A. (F) No. 62 of 1993 awarding compensation of Rs. 50,000 for the death of a boy studying in class X, the insurer and the insured objected to the abnormally high amount of compensation.

(3.) By the impugned judgment, Claims Tribunal while awarding an amount of Rs. 3,86,000 had drawn certain inference from his own experience after considering that the grandfather of the victim was a sheristader in the court of Additional District Judge and father of the victim was a village level worker under the Department of Agriculture. Deceased boy was a student of English medium school and, therefore, Claims Tribunal held that the boy had the prospect at least of becoming a group-D employee and thereby earning an amount of Rs. 3,200 per month. He, thus, calculated annual loss multiplying Rs. 3,200 by 12 and then by 15 (being the multiplier) and thus total amount came to Rs. 5,76,000. Deducting 1/3rd of the amount towards personal expenses, he finally downed the amount to Rs. 3,84,000 to which he added Rs. 2,000 towards funeral expenses. Thus, the total amount of compensation came to Rs. 3,86,000. Along with this amount, the Tribunal also awarded interest at the rate of 10 per cent per annum. Against this method of calculation as well as the rate of interest, the present appeal and revision petition have been filed.