ORIENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED Vs. NARINDER KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ORIENTAL Insurance Company (insurer of truck No. PUC- 5599) and Manjit Singh its owner have filed the present appeal against the impugned award of learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Patiala dated 20.12.1985 awarding a compensation of Rs. 1,50,000/- including Rs. 15,000/- as no fault compensation in favour of Narinder Kaur widow of Narinjan Singh, (since deceased) and her three minor children along with interest @ 12% PA from the date of the application till its realization.

(2.) I have heard Mr. Munishwar Puri, learned counsel for the appellants. However, no one has turned up for the claimant-respondents. Service of Karam Singh, the driver of the offending vehicle was dispensed with by this Court vide order dated 3.6.1987.

(3.) I have heard Mr. Puri at length and have gone through the impugned award. Mr. Puri has not joined issue with regard to the negligence of the driver and instead confined his arguments with regard to quantum of compensation only contending that it is on higher side. Strengthening his arguments the learned counsel then contends that Narinjan Singh (since deceased) was of the age of 60 years at the time of death. He was a retired lecturer and was getting Rs. 933/- as pension. The learned Tribunal has assessed the annual dependency as Rs. 13,800/- and then applied the multiplier of 8 (total amount comes to Rs. 1,10,400/-). So far as the income of the deceased is concerned, the learned counsel submits that there is no evidence on the record to assess Rs. 800/- per month. Another grievance of the learned counsel is that a sum of Rs. 40,000/- has been awarded in favour of the claimants on the ground that the deceased was doing the publication work and he had to publish four books in near future from which he could reasonably earn Rs. 40,000/-. This approach of the learned Tribunal, according to the learned counsel, is not proper.