Gujarat High Court
The New India Insurance Company Ltd vs Rashmiben Bharatkumar Sharma on 7 August, 2025
NEUTRAL CITATION
C/FA/2833/2025 ORDER DATED: 07/08/2025
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/FIRST APPEAL NO. 2833 of 2025
With
CIVIL APPLICATION (FOR STAY) NO. 1 of 2025
In
R/FIRST APPEAL NO. 2833 of 2025
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THE NEW INDIA INSURANCE COMPANY LTD.
Versus
RASHMIBEN BHARATKUMAR SHARMA & ORS.
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Appearance:
MR RITURAJ M MEENA(3224) for the Appellant(s) No. 1
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CORAM:HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE NISHA M. THAKORE
Date : 07/08/2025
ORAL ORDER
1. Heard Mr. Rituraj Meena, learned advocate for the appellant. Learned advocate, at the outset, has tendered undertaking filed by him assuring this Court to deposit the amount of court fees in case the amount of Court fees which has been inadvertently deposited reflecting the name of the claimants instead of the appellant Insurance Company is not accepted by the treasury office. With these, undertaking being submitted before this Court, the First Appeal is taken up for hearing.
2. Having heard the learned advocate for the appellant- Insurance Company and grounds raised in the appeal memo, looking to the issue involved, the present appeal is taken up Page 1 of 7 Uploaded by RATHOD KAUSHIKSINH JILUSINH(HC00957) on Thu Aug 07 2025 Downloaded on : Thu Aug 07 22:12:59 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/FA/2833/2025 ORDER DATED: 07/08/2025 undefined for final hearing peremptorily at admission stage.
3. The present appeal is filed under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 at the instance of the Insurance Company being aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and award dated 28.02.2025 passed by the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Dhari, Dist. Amreli in MACP No.284 of 2018. By the said impugned judgment and award, the Tribunal has partly allowed the claim petition preferred by the original claimants- respondents herein under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act, 1988") holding them entitled to recover sum of Rs.70,89,240/- with interest at the rate of 7.5% pa from the date of filing of claim petition till its realization with proportionate costs to be recovered from the original opponents no. 1 to 3 jointly and severally. The Tribunal has further exonerated the original opponent nos. 4 and 5 being owner and the Insurance Company of the second vehicle involved.
4. Learned advocate for the appellant has at the outset invited my attention to the grounds raised in the appeal memo Page 2 of 7 Uploaded by RATHOD KAUSHIKSINH JILUSINH(HC00957) on Thu Aug 07 2025 Downloaded on : Thu Aug 07 22:12:59 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/FA/2833/2025 ORDER DATED: 07/08/2025 undefined and has submitted that the present appeal is confined essentially on the issue of quantum of compensation being determined on higher side. The learned advocate has assailed the impugned judgment and award of the Tribunal by contending that the Tribunal has committed gross error in considering the deduction as 1/4th towards personal expenses of the deceased while ignoring the fact that father of the deceased could not considered as dependent on the income of the deceased. He has further invited my attention to the findings and reasons assigned by the Tribunal being record in this regard and has submitted that in fact no reason has been assigned by the Tribunal to consider it as 1/4th deduction in the facts of the case. He has further assailed the amount of compensation being awarded on higher side by contending that the income of the deceased has been though established on record by the claimants by producing on record the salary slip of the deceased at Exh.90, according to learned advocate, the Tribunal could not have straightway accepted the income as reflected in the salary slip to be the proof of the income of the deceased in absence of any income tax returns being brought on record. It was further contended that the income of the deceased may have vary across the year. He has Page 3 of 7 Uploaded by RATHOD KAUSHIKSINH JILUSINH(HC00957) on Thu Aug 07 2025 Downloaded on : Thu Aug 07 22:12:59 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/FA/2833/2025 ORDER DATED: 07/08/2025 undefined therefore, urged this Court to admit the present appeal and to issue appropriate direction of stay against the impugned judgment and award.
5. Considering the submissions made by the learned advocates for the appellant- Insurance Company, in light of the findings and reasons assigned by the Tribunal, on close perusal of the facts of the case as emerged on record, it has transpired that the deceased was aged about 39 years and was engaged as Application Engineer in a private limited company. The claimant in order to establish the income of the deceased has produced on record, the salary slip of the deceased of the month of February 2016 at Exh.90 as recorded by the Tribunal. To prove the income of the deceased, the claimants have examined one witness Mr. Utkarsh Jathva who is Assistant Manager Sales, Rajkot at Exh.84. Thus, the salary slip of the deceased has been proved through the aforesaid witness. Therefore, appreciation of the salary slip shows gross earning of the deceased as Rs.37,334/-. The Tribunal upon considering the fact that the professional tax of Rs.300/- and income tax return of Rs.2440/- being required to be deducted towards gross income and Page 4 of 7 Uploaded by RATHOD KAUSHIKSINH JILUSINH(HC00957) on Thu Aug 07 2025 Downloaded on : Thu Aug 07 22:12:59 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/FA/2833/2025 ORDER DATED: 07/08/2025 undefined other deductions being considered under the head of PF contribution, credit society, deduction, mediclaim deduction, LIC premium are all the superannuation benefit has treated the salary income of the deceased for the purpose of computation of the future prospects as Rs.34,594/- per month. Having appreciated the aforesaid findings and reasons assigned by the Tribunal in the facts of the case and the evidence recorded, this Court is of the view that the approach of the Tribunal is just and proper. No error can be found with the aforesaid findings and the reasons assigned by the Tribunal. Once the salary slip has been established as the proof of income by examining the authorized officer of the company, there is no reason for the Tribunal or for this Court to disbelieve the case of the claimants about the earning of the deceased. The Tribunal at the same time has also taken into consideration the amount towards the deduction as evident from the salary slip and has accordingly arrived at a conclusion fixing the monthly prospective income of the deceased of Rs.34,594/-.
6. This brings me to the second issue which is raised for consideration before this Court in the present appeal at the Page 5 of 7 Uploaded by RATHOD KAUSHIKSINH JILUSINH(HC00957) on Thu Aug 07 2025 Downloaded on : Thu Aug 07 22:12:59 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/FA/2833/2025 ORDER DATED: 07/08/2025 undefined instance of the appellant - Insurance Company. So far as deduction of 1/4th towards the personal expenses of the deceased is concerned, as is evident from the cause title of the judgment under challenge the family of the deceased consisted of the wife of the deceased and both the parents and the minor son of the deceased. It is also evident from the cause title that both the parents along with the widow and the minor child were residing together with the deceased. The submissions made by the learned advocate for the appellant to not to consider the father of the deceased as dependent on the income of the deceased is concerned, noticing the fact that father was aged around 66 years at the time of occurrence of accident, having lost his son at this age, certainly, it cannot be said that the father was not dependent on the deceased. The bare perusal of the findings and reasons assigned by the Tribunal, the Tribunal has noted that the claimants are the children of the deceased and no other persons have been assigned as his dependent. However, noticing the principle laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Sarla Verma and ors. vs. Delhi Transport Corporation and Anr. reported in (2009) 6 SCC 121, this Court is of the view that the deduction of ¼th applied in the facts of the case is just and Page 6 of 7 Uploaded by RATHOD KAUSHIKSINH JILUSINH(HC00957) on Thu Aug 07 2025 Downloaded on : Thu Aug 07 22:12:59 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/FA/2833/2025 ORDER DATED: 07/08/2025 undefined proper, which calls for no interference of this Court in the present appeal.
7. For the foregoing reasons, in absence of any merits, the present appeal is summarily dismissed. In view of the dismissal of the appeal, connected Civil Application also stands dismissed.
sd/-
(NISHA M. THAKORE,J) RATHOD KAUSHIKSINH Page 7 of 7 Uploaded by RATHOD KAUSHIKSINH JILUSINH(HC00957) on Thu Aug 07 2025 Downloaded on : Thu Aug 07 22:12:59 IST 2025