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2005 DIGILAW 2390 (RAJ)

Sheela Shrivastava v. State of Rajasthan

2005-09-08

JITENDRA RAY GOYAL

body2005
Judgment Jitendra Ray Goyal, J.-Instant appeal has been preferred by the claimant-appellants, who are wife, son, daughter of the deceased Hari Mohan, who died in a road accident which occurred on 23.07.1992, for enhancement of the compensation against the award dated 29.09.1997 passed by Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Kota in MAC No. 14/1993 whereby compensation to the tune of Rs. 3,10,000/-has been awarded in favour of the claimant-appellants. 2. Heard learned Counsel for the parties and perused the impugned award passed by the Tribunal. Learned Counsel for the appellants contended that learned Tribunal assessed the income of the deceased Hari Mohan at Rs. 5,719/-per month since he was a Government servant but only assessed the loss of dependency Rs. 2,500/-per month which is on very much lower side while by the catena of Judgment s it has been held that loss of dependency should be assessed after deducting 1/3rd amount on account of own expenses of the deceased. It is also contended that a meagre amount of Rs. 10,000/-has been awarded to the wife and nothing has been awarded to the children of the deceased Hari Mohan under the head of loss of love and affection. 3. Learned Counsel appearing for the respondent-State supported the impugned award and contended that after considering entire facts and circumstances of the case, learned Tribunal rightly awarded the compensation. 4. I have considered the rival submissions. It is not disputed that the deceased Hari Mohan died in a road accident on 23.07.1992. Learned Tribunal found that this accident took place on account of rash and negligent driving of the dumper-truck bearing registration No.RRB-5786 by its driver-respondent No. 4 Babu Lal. Learned Tribunal also found that the deceased Hari Mohan was a headmaster in the Government Secondary School, Ranpur and was getting Rs. 5,719/-per month but learned Tribunal assessed the loss of dependency at Rs. 2,500/-per month only without assigning any reason while it has come in the evidence that deceased Hari Mohan died leaving behind him her widow, son and daughter. This position has been settled by the catena of Judgment s of the Honble Supreme Court that loss of dependency should be arrived at after deducting 1/3rd amount on account of own expenses of the deceased. In the instant case, after deducting 1/3rd amount from his salary RS. 5,719/-the loss of dependency comes to Rs. 3,813/- i.e., Rs. This position has been settled by the catena of Judgment s of the Honble Supreme Court that loss of dependency should be arrived at after deducting 1/3rd amount on account of own expenses of the deceased. In the instant case, after deducting 1/3rd amount from his salary RS. 5,719/-the loss of dependency comes to Rs. 3,813/- i.e., Rs. 3,800/-per month (in round figure) and after applying the multiplier of 10 as adopted by the Tribunal, the total loss of dependency comes to Rs. 3800x12x10= Rs. 4,56,000/-. Learned Tribunal has awarded Rs. 10,000/-to the widow of the deceased Hari Mohan under the head of loss of consortium and loss of estate conventional, which appears to be reasonable, but nothing has been awarded to other claimants who are daughter and son of the deceased. Under the facts and circumstances of the present case, I deem it proper to award Rs. 5,000/ to each of these two claimant-appellants for the loss of love and affection. Thus, the total amount of compensation comes to RS. 4,76,000 /-. 5. Consequently, this appeal is partly allowed, the award of learned Tribunal is modified and the amount of compensation is enhanced to Rs. 4,76,000/-from Rs. 3,10,000/-as awarded by the Tribunal. The appellants are also entitled to get interest @ 6% per annum on the enhanced amount of compensation from the date of filing the claim application till the payment is made.