G.L. NAGPAL Vs. M.P. RAIZADA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order may be read in continuation of my detailed order passed in FAQ. No. 476 of 1980 decided on 13-11-1984, vide which FAO Nos. 476, 478 and 479 of 1980 were allowed and in FAO No. 477 of 1980 the report was called from the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Chandigarh (for short 'the Tribunal'), under Order 41 Rule 25 read with Section 151 of the Civil Procedure Code, in view of the death of Smt. parmeshwari Devi, claimant, during the pendency of the proceedings, to determine the matter whether her legal representatives were entitled to any compensation and if so how much. The Tribunal has forwarded a detailed report dated 9-12-1985, suggesting that Rs. 7255/- should be paid as compensation to the legal representatives as follows: (i) Special diet for 263 days from 23-6-1975, the day she was admitted to P.G.I, till 29-7-1975, when she was discharged from PGI and thereafter till 12-3-1976 as an outdoor patient when she was allowed to walk with the help of two non-weight bearing crutches at the rate of Rs. 5/- per day :- Rs. 1315/-

(2.) THE learned Counsel for the claimants is totally dissatisfied with the report of the Tribunal and has argued that the large number of items have been wrongly disallowed and on the items on which compensation has been awarded, that is disproportionately low. In order to appreciate the points raised on behalf of the claimants, some salient facts of the case deserve to be noticed.

(3.) ADMITTEDLY , she was brought to PGI on the following day i.e. 23-6-1975 and remained there as an indoor patient till 29th July, 1975 when she was discharged with whole of the left leg in plaster. There were four fractures on the left leg, two on femur, one on tibia and one on fibula. As an outdoor patient she remained under treatment till 2nd December, 1975, when she was allowed to walk with two non-weight bearing crutches. On 6-3-1976 marriage of her son took place and on 12-3-1976 she was allowed to walk on one weight bearing crutch. On 24-3-1976 she fell down in the residential house, suffered fracture of the same leg and was treated in the PGI upto July, 1977. In 1978 she was got checked up from the doctors of Amritsar, Delhi and Patiala, as she continued to have stiff knee and other permanent disabilities in the leg. Thereafter, she continued under treatment of PGI till February, 1978. In July, 1979 a lump on the left breast was formed for which she was operated in that month and was discharged in February, 1980. Since her leg trouble could not improve, she was taken to Bombay and in Tara Memorial Hospital doctors on bone scanning found hot point compatible with cancer in the left femur. 10 courses of chemotherapy were given. Once again, she was taken to Bombay and 3 cycles of chemotherapy were given to the hot point of femur. By 1983 the cancer spread to lungs. The right humerus bone was pathologically fractured and she was again admitted to PG1, and on 30th August, 1983, she was discharged from there as a hopeless case and was put on Ayurvedic treatment and she ultimately died on 29th October, 1983.