Delhi High Court
New India Assurance Co. Ltd. vs Kavita & Others on 13 July, 2011
Author: Indermeet Kaur
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
% Date of Judgment: 13.07.2011
+ MAC APPEAL NO. 205/2011 & CM No. 4817/2011
NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO. LTD. ...........Appellant
Through: Ms. Neerja Sachdeva,
Advocate.
Versus
KAVITA & OTHERS ..........Respondents
Through: None.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE INDERMEET KAUR
1. Whether the Reporters of local papers may be allowed to
see the judgment?
2. To be referred to the Reporter or not? Yes
3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest?
Yes
INDERMEET KAUR, J. (Oral)
1 The award impugned before this Court is the award dated
22.12.2010 whereby the compensation in the sum of `9,30,330/-
had been awarded to the claimants.
2 On 04.05.2006, Mr. Satish Kumar suffered an accident
pursuant to a head on collision of his two wheeler scooter with the
offending vehicle; the deceased succumbed to his injuries. Oral
and documentary evidence was led. The aforenoted amount was
accordingly awarded in favour of the claimants.
3 There is a twofold argument urged before this Court. It is
contended that the minimum wages of the deceased had been
taken into account and in this regard the Tribunal had taken into
consideration the price index and rise on inflation which is
incorrect and opposed to the ratio of judgment of the Supreme
Court reported in Sarla Verma Vs. DTC (2009) 6 SCC 121. The
second argument is that under the category of "love and affection"
only a token amount could have been awarded; the Tribunal had
erroneously awarded a sum of `1 lac.
4 It is not in dispute and as has been held by the catena of
judgments reported in 2008 ACJ 2182 (Delhi) Kanwar Devi Vs. Bansal
Roadways, 2007 ACJ 2165 (Delhi) Lekhraj Vs. Suram Singh and 2009
ACJ 1921 (Delhi) National Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Renu Devi judicial
notice can be taken of the fact that price rise over period of time and
cost of inflation has to be kept in mind even while considering the
case of those claimants where the deceased was under the cover of
minimum wages; this matter has rested with the aforenoted
judgments and the Tribunal had rightly considered the price rise
index and cost of inflation while computing and calculating the
amount of compensation awarded to the claimants.
5 The amount of `1 lac awarded under the head of loss of love
and affection also does not suffer from any infirmity and this is in
view of law laid in the case of New India Assurance Company Ltd. Vs.
Bali Ram Bansal & Others in MAC APPEAL No. 257/2010 decided on
26.04.2010. In this case, ground of Rs.1,50,000/- under the head of
love and affection had been upheld by a Bench of this Court. The
Court had inter-alia noted as follows:-
"However, while granting compensation for loss of life, the courts have been
granting token amount under different heads like loss of consortium, loss of
estate and loss of love and affection apart from loss of dependency. Such
amounts are granted by the Tribunals at their own discretion considering
several aspects connected with the family and death of the person. No doubt
each presiding officer of the Tribunal and each judge of the High Court and/or
the Supreme Court shall have his own concepts and standards and would be
considering amounts on such heads as per their own concepts. While
considering an appeal, substituting discretionary relief granted by the Tribunal
by another amount on its own estimations of loss of love and affection would
not be proper. The Tribunal is a court where evidence of the dependents is
recorded and has firsthand experience of the kind of love and affection the
dependents felt deprived of. Thus, the Tribunal is the best judge of the amount
of compensation to be awarded under such heads."
The claimants are the widow and minor children of the
deceased; deceased was 31 years of age on the date of his death.
There is no ground to interfere in the award of compensation for the
deprivation of „love and affection‟.
Appeal is dismissed.
INDERMEET KAUR, J.
JULY 13, 2011
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