HARJIT KAUR Vs. TOCHI TRANSPORT COMPANY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AJAIB Singh working as Inspector, Co-operative Milk Supplies, Dhuri, died in a motor vehicle accident on 14-11-1981 at about 10.30 A.M. near the outer gate of Bus Stand, Sangrur. His widow Smt. Harjit Kaur, two minor sons and one daughter, namely, Jatinder Pal Singh, Rupinder Singh and Satwinder Kaur and his old widowed mother Smt. Kartar Kaur filed a claim application under Section 110 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (hereinafter called the 'Act') in the court of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal Sangrur claiming therein compensation to the tune of Rs. 6,00,000/- from respondents Nos. 1 and 2 who are the owner and driver of Bus No. PBS-3271 involved in the accident and from respondent No. 3 with which the said bus was insured. The learned Tribunal on the basis of the allegations of the parties framed the following issues:

(2.) THOUGH issue No. 1 was decided in favour of the applicants and it was held that they are the legal representatives of Ajaib Singh deceased, issue No. 2 was decided against them. The learned Tribunal held that the evidence produced by the applicants failed to prove that Ajaib Singh died as a result of accident in which Bus No. 3271 was involved and which was being driven rashly and negligently by Gurdial Singh, respondent No. 2. Under issue No. 3 the learned Tribunal simply held that since Ajaib Singh was not proved to have died because of an accident caused due to rash and negligent driving of the Bus No. 3271 by Gurdial Singh, respondent, therefore the applicants were not entitled to claim any compensation and quantum of compensation was not determined by the learned Tribunal. As a consequence, the claim application was dismissed by the learned Tribunal vide its award dated 8-4-1982. The widow, the minor children and the widowed mother of Ajaib Singh deceased whose claim application failed before the Tribunal, have filed the present appeal in this Court.

(3.) NOW coming to the quantum of compensation payable to the appellants, it may be mentioned, that Charan Dass, PW 6 Superintendent, in the office of the Assistant Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Malerkotla, has stated that Ajaib Singh deceased was an employee in his Department. He was posted at Dhuri as Inspector, Co-operative Milk Supplies, Dhuri. He was permanently residing at Sangrur. The witness brought the service record of the deceased and stated that according to the last pay bill he was drawing in all Rs. 692/- per month as his salary. The date of birth of Ajaib Singh according to the record was 3-1-1942. Smt. Harjit Kaur PW 7, the widow of the deceased stated that she and her three minor children Jatinder-pal Singh, aged 13 years, Satvinder Kaur, aged 11 years and Rupinder Singh, aged 9 years besides Kartar Kaur, the widowed mother of the deceased, were dependent on him. She stated that she is aged 32 years. In my view, out of the salary of Rs. 692/- Ajaib Singh must be spending Rs. 192/- on himself and paying at least Rs. 500/- per month for the livelihood of his dependents who are appellants before me. His age on the date of accident was less than 39 years. I, therefore, assess the loss to the appellants because of the death of Ajaib Singh in the vehicle accident at Rs. 500/- per month, i.e. Rs. 6,000/-per annum and by applying multiplier of 16,1 assess the compensation payable to the appellants at Rs. 96,000/-.