ORIENTAL INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. GURNAM SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CHALLENGE herein is to the award, Annexure P -3, passed by learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Solan, Camp at Nalagarh in M.A.C. Petition No. 25 -NL/11 of 2005, on 20.9.2008, whereby the respondent Nos. 1 to 3, hereinafter referred to as 'the claimants ', have been awarded a sum of Rs. 4,88,000 (rupees four lakh eighty -eight thousand) as compensation together with interest at the rate of 9 percent per annum from the date of institution of the petition till its deposit towards the loss they sustained on account of the death of their mother Kanta Devi in the accident of their Maruti car No. CH 18 -T 3871 with truck No. CH 01 -R 2849 on 22.8.2004 on Pinjore -Nalagarh Highway.

(2.) THE complaint herein is that learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal has failed to make deduction of 1/3rd of the income of deceased Kanta Devi, which she would have spent on her own maintenance had she not died in this accident. Also that the claimants have been awarded a sum of Rs. 5,96,000 as compensation in a separate petition they preferred on account of the death of their father in the same accident as according to petitioner insurance company, if the award is not modified it will amount to double enrichment of the claimants.

(3.) ON the other hand, learned counsel representing the respondents -claimants, while placing reliance on the judgment of the Apex Court in Lata Wadhwa v. State of Bihar, 2001 ACJ 1735 (SC), has vehemently argued that learned Tribunal below has not committed any illegality or irregularity in assessing the loss of services being rendered by the deceased towards her children, the claimants, gratuitously to the tune of Rs. 3,000 per month and that neither the law laid down in Sarla Verma 's case nor in Arun Kumar Agrawal 's case has any application to the case in hand. Learned counsel further submits that the criteria laid down under clause 6 of the Second Schedule is applicable only in a claim petition under section 163 -A of the Act and not like the present one under section 166 thereof.