NATIONAL INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. JASPAL KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) I . Death of an agriculturist, challenge to quantum: The appeal is by the insurance company challenging the quantum of compensation assessed by the Tribunal. The insurance company had the benefit of defence on all grounds under section 170 of the Motor Vehicles Act by the order of the Tribunal dated 30.6.2009. The insurance company is aggrieved by the assessment of compensation of Rs. 14,29,000 for the death of an agriculturist, who was holding 12 acres of land. The Tribunal took the income of the deceased at Rs. 12,000 per month against the statement of the widow that her husband was earning Rs. 40,000 per month. II. Setting the basics-where land is still available, whole income cannot be relevant:

(2.) IN the case of agriculturist, it must be remembered that the income from the land itself ought not to be the sole consideration for determining the loss arising out of the death. The attempt must be made to secure evidence of the value of the services of the deceased for managerial skills of the agricultural land. The Supreme Court said, while dealing with the issue of assessment of compensation for the death of an agriculturist in a motor accident, in State of Haryana v. Jasbir Kaur, 2003 ACJ 1800 (SC) :

(3.) DETERMINING income realized itself is different from assessment of loss. Agricultural operations may not at all times be capable of precise calculation as given above. It must, however, be remembered that some approximation is inevitably made in all motor accident claims and, therefore, the attempt must be to bring the projection which is close to reality than merely allowing the parties to let in unrealistic and unsubstantiated evidence on what the deceased was earning from the land, such as the evidence in this case that suggests that the deceased was earning Rs. 40,000 per month. Such type of evidence could hardly be helpful, for, like we have observed above, lands are not like fixed deposits yielding a return every month. Again, by the death of a person, the land does not vanish. The property, on the other hand, continues in specie and the income is still realizable from the property even after the death of the person. Unlike the death of a wage earner or a salaried person, who by his death leaves nothing to the family in financial terms, the land yields income after the death of the landowner to his or her legal representatives, even without labour, such as what could be stated about the lease amount. There must be appropriate evidence wherever possible through production of any accounts, whenever are maintained. If an agriculturist is a small farmer or is illiterate and no accounts are maintained, the nature of crops raised in the land is verifiable from the cultivation accounts [like, khasra girdawari (as is called in Punjab and Haryana), adangal (as is called in Tamil Nadu) etc.,] maintained by the revenue officials in village. The cultivation accounts would not merely show the crop pattern, it would also show the number of crops raised in the land. For example, the form of khasra girdawari mentioned in Punjab Land Records Manual in Chapter 9 in the topic 'Harvest Inspections' would contain the following : <IMG>JUDGEMENT_1481_ACJ_2013.jpg</IMG> Prices of grains fetched from the Market Committee or any authorised agencies should afford the best evidence. Attempt must be made to adduce evidence about the average price of the grains at the relevant time and the crop pattern in the land which the deceased held. The prices of grains are periodically notified by the respective State governments through agriculture departments after analysis of market conditions and they could be easily picked up from the web portals of the State government. If the nature of crops raised in the land is known through cultivation accounts, it is possible to even gather the average yield per acre that could have come through the land from the data released by the governments. (ii) Detailing expenses: