Delhi High Court
Sunita & Ors vs Suresh Kumar & Ors on 11 May, 2009
Author: J.R. Midha
41
*IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ MAC.APP. 595/2008
Date of Decision: 11th May, 2009
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SUNITA & ORS ..... Appellants
Through : Mr. O.P. Mannie, Adv.
versus
SURESH KUMAR & ORS ..... Respondents
Through : Mr. R.N. Sharma, Adv. for R-3.
CORAM :-
THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE J.R. MIDHA
1. Whether Reporters of Local papers may YES
be allowed to see the Judgment?
2. To be referred to the Reporter or not? YES
3. Whether the judgment should be YES
reported in the Digest?
JUDGMENT (Oral)
1. The appellant has challenged the award of the learned
Tribunal whereby compensation of Rs.3,65,000/- has been
awarded to the appellants. The appellants seek the
enhancement of the award amount.
2. The accident dated 10th March, 2007 resulted in the
death of Praveen Chaudhary aged 23 years at the time of the
accident. The deceased was survived by his mother aged 43
years, un-married sister aged 24 years and brother aged 18
years who filed the claim petition before the learned
Tribunal.
3. The learned Tribunal computed the compensation of
Rs.3,65,000/-. The computation is based on the multiplier of
10 and 50% deduction towards the personal expenses of the
deceased.
4. The learned counsel for the appellant has urged only
two grounds at the hearing of this appeal. The first ground of
challenge is that the multiplier of 14 should be applied
according to the recent judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme
Court in the case of Sarla Verma vs. Delhi Transport
Corporation, 2009 (6) Scale 129 decided on 15th April,
2009.
5. The second ground of challenge is that the personal
expenses of the deceased should be deducted as 1/3 rd
instead of 1/2 since the mother of the deceased was a widow
and was solely dependent on the deceased; the unmarried
sister was dependent and the deceased had to arrange for
her marriage, and the younger brother was also dependent
upon the deceased.
6. With respect to the multiplier, the Hon'ble Supreme
Court has rectified multipliers given in the Second Schedule
of the Motor Vehicles Act and the multiplier according to the
age of the mother of the deceased is 14. The multiplier is,
therefore, enhanced from 10 to 14.
7. With respect to the personal expenses of the deceased,
the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Sarla Verma
(Supra) has held that the deduction towards personal
expenses of the deceased should be 1/2 where the deceased
was unmarried but where the family of the deceased
bachelor is large and dependent upon the deceased, the
deduction towards the personal expenses have to be
restricted to 1/3rd. Following the aforesaid judgment, the
appropriate deduction in the present case is 1/3rd instead of
1/2 applied by the learned Tribunal. The compensation in
the present case is computed to be Rs.6,38,000/- (Rs.63,000
x 2/3 x 14 + Rs.40,000 + Rs.10,000).
8. The appeal is accordingly allowed. The award amount
is enhanced from Rs.3,65,000/- to Rs.6,38,000/- along with
interest @7.5% per annum from the date of filing of the
petition till the date of payment.
9. The enhanced amount along with interest be deposited
by respondent No.3 with the learned Tribunal within 30 days.
The shares of the appellants in the enhanced amount shall
be as under:-
Appellant No.1 : 80%
Appellants No.2 and 3 : 10% each
10. Upon the enhanced amount along with interest being
deposited, the learned Tribunal is directed to release 10% of
the award amount along with interest to each of the
appellants. The remaining 70% of the award amount be kept
in fixed deposit in the name of appellant No.1 for a period of
seven years on which periodical interest be paid to appellant
No.1 but no loan, advance or withdrawal be permitted
without permission of the learned Tribunal. However,
appellant No.1 is at liberty to approach the learned Tribunal
for requirement of more amount at the time of marriage of
appellant No.2.
J.R. MIDHA, J
MAY 11, 2009
aj
