PARWINDER KAUR Vs. DARSHAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Counsel for the appellant has supplied copy of the paper book. The same is taken on record. It shall form part of the record and be treated as duly reconstructed. The appeal is for enhancement of compensation for death of a male aged 35 years who was said to be in the profession of photography and he also took up assignments for photography for a Punjabi Newspaper 'Ajit' An attempt had been made at the trial to show that some payments had been made to one Nirmal Photo Studio but there was no receipts showing the name of the deceased. The tribunal took the income of the deceased as an un-skilled worker, took his income to be Rs. 1500/- and awarded a compensation of Rs. 1,44,000/-.

(2.) I find the assessment to be grossly low. If he was trained in photography and if there were also documents to show that the newspaper 'Ajit' had given some assignments, I will not make an issue about the fact that the payments had been made in favour of Nirmal Studio. So long as there was evidence that he was connected to the said Studio, I would take the average income of such a person making a provision through prospect of increase in income over a period of time to Rs. 5,000/- and apply 1/3rd deduction and apply a multiplier of 16 to take the dependency at Rs. 6,40,000/-. I will take the loss of consortium to Rs. 1 lac and loss of love and affection for the child at Rs. 1 lac. I will also make an additional amount of Rs. 5,000/- for funeral expenses and loss to estate at Rs. 2,500/-. The various heads of compensation are tabulated as under:--