PARAMJIT SINGH Vs. DILBAGH SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellants are the son and daughter of Baljit Kaur W/o Lakhwinder Singh, who died at the age of 45 on 07.03.2010 in a motor vehicular accident caused by driver Dilbagh Singh alias Bagga of a bus owned by M/s New Majha Transport Cooperative Society Limited. The deceased was a housewife. The Tribunal assessed her income @ Rs. 3,000/- per month but applied a cut of Rs. 1,000/- towards her personal expenses and with a multiplier of 14, awarded a sum of Rs. 3,36,000/- on account of loss of dependency, Rs. 5,000/- for loss of estate and Rs. 5,000/- towards funeral expenses. The total amount of Rs. 3,46,000/- was awarded with interest @ 6% per annum to be calculated from the date of filing of the claim petition till the date of actual realization of the awarded amount.

(2.) The awarded compensation was ordered to be shared equally by both the appellants.

(3.) Aggrieved against the award, the present appeal has been preferred in which at the time of issuing notice to the Insurance Company, it was ordered that on completion of service, the case be put up before the Lok Adalat. Accordingly, the case was listed before the Lok Adalat and on 20.12.2012, the Lok Adalat referred the case back to this Court for adjudication on a question of law as to "whether in case of assessment of the notional income of a housewife, 1/3rd amount is to be deducted to arrive at the figure of dependency?" It was requested by the Lok Adalat that since there were divergent views of the learned Single Judges on the aforesaid issue, the matter may be listed for consideration by a Larger Bench.