Smt. Yashwanti & Ors. vs Sh. Ishwar Singh & Ors.
2011 Latest Caselaw 3357 Del

                                      UNREPORTED
*    IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI


+                  FAO NO.407/2002


SMT. YASHWANTI & ORS.                              ..... Appellants
                  Through:             Mr. S.N. Parashar, Advocate

                   versus

SH. ISHWAR SINGH & ORS.                          ..... Respondents
                   Through:            Mr. L.K. Tyagi, Advocate for
                                       Respondent No.2.


%                           Date of Decision : July 15, 2011

CORAM:
HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE REVA KHETRAPAL
1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed
   to see the judgment?
2. To be referred to the Reporter or not?
3. Whether judgment should be reported in Digest?

                            J U D G M E N T (ORAL)

: REVA KHETRAPAL, J.

1. The appellants in this appeal under Section 173 of the Motor

Vehicles Act, 1988 seek enhancement of the compensation

amount awarded to them by the Motor Accident Claims

Tribunal by its judgment and award dated 16th April, 2002

passed in Claim Petition No. 134/96.

2. The facts relevant for the decision of the present appeal are that

one Rajender Prasad Chauhan died in a road accident on

16.12.1995, leaving behind his widow and three children. The

deceased was employed in Government Co-Ed. Secondary

School, Barwala, Delhi and was earning ` 7,346/- per month.

A claim petition under Section 166 of Motor Vehicles Act,

1988 was filed by his aforesaid legal representatives claiming a

sum of ` 10,00,000/- by way of compensation for his untimely

demise. The learned Claims Tribunal after appraisal of the

evidence on record including the pay certificates produced

from the school, Exhibit PW1/A and Exhibit P1, showing his

income as ` 7,346/- per month, proceeded to calculate the

compensation to be awarded to the appellants on the basis of

the said income. The Tribunal then went on to state that if the

future increments were taken into consideration, the monthly

income of the deceased could be roughly taken to be ` 8,000/-

per month and that monthly dependency could be calculated by

taking two-third (2/3rd) of this amount. The Tribunal, thus,

calculated the monthly dependency of the appellants to be

` 5,334/- and proceeded to capitalise the annual dependency by

a multiplier of 11, thereby arriving at a figure of ` 7,04,088/-.

To this, the conventional sum of ` 15,000/- was added towards

the loss of consortium and loss of estate, and the appellants

were held entitled to receive in all a sum of ` 7,19,088/-

alongwith the interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the

date of filing of the petition till the realization of the award.

3. Aggrieved by the aforesaid computation of compensation by

the learned Tribunal, the present appeal has been preferred by

the appellants. Mr. S.N. Parashar, the learned counsel for the

appellants, has assailed the findings of the Tribunal principally

on the following grounds:-

(i) The learned Tribunal failed to take into account

the future prospects of the deceased while

computing the income of the deceased;

(ii) The learned Tribunal erred in deducting one-third

(1/3rd) of the income of the deceased towards his

personal expenses and maintenance instead of

one-fourth (1/4th), which was the permissible

deduction;

(iii) The learned Tribunal erred in capitalising the

multiplicand constituting the loss of dependency

of the appellants with the multiplier of 11 instead

of the multiplier of 15 as laid down in the II

Schedule to the Act; and

(iv) The learned Tribunal erred in not awarding any

amount whatsoever under the head of loss of love

and affection of the deceased.

4. Mr. L.K. Tyagi, the learned counsel for the respondent No.2 -

Insurance Company, on the other hand, sought to support the

award by contending that the future prospects of the deceased

had been taken into account by the learned Tribunal, in that, the

Tribunal had by the process of adding the future increments to

the salary of the deceased on the date of the accident arrived at

the figure of ` 8,000/- per month. Mr. Tyagi could not,

however, justify the deduction of one-third (1/3rd) of the

income of the deceased towards his personal expenses and

maintenance. As regards the multiplier also, Mr. Tyagi could

not deny that the appropriate multiplier for the age group of

victims between 41 years and 45 years is the multiplier of 14 in

consonance with the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court

in Smt. Sarla Verma and Ors. Vs. Delhi Transport

Corporation and Anr. (2009) 6 SCC 121 while it was 15 as per

the II Schedule to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

5. In the case of Smt. Sarla Verma (supra), the Hon'ble Supreme

Court has laid down certain guidelines to be followed by

Courts and Tribunals while computing the income of the

deceased for the purpose of assessing the loss of dependency of

his legal representatives. The guidelines with regard to addition

to income for future prospects have been enunciated as under:-

"In Susamma Thomas, this Court increased the income by nearly 100%, in Sarla Dixit, the income was increased only by 50% and in Abati Bezbaruah the income was increased by a mere 7%. In view of imponderables and uncertainties, we are in favour of adopting as a rule of thumb, an addition of 50% of actual salary to the actual salary income of the deceased towards future prospects, where the deceased had a permanent job and was below 40 years. [Where the annual income is in the taxable range, the words `actual salary' should be read as `actual salary less tax']. The addition should be only 30% if the age of the deceased was 40 to 50 years."

6. Clearly, in view of the aforesaid dicta laid down by the Hon'ble

Supreme Court, the monthly income of the deceased needs to

be re-computed by making an addition of 30% of actual income

to the actual salary income of the deceased towards future

prospects, the deceased being in the age group of 41-45 years.

The salary certificate of the deceased shows that his income

was not in the taxable range, and thus, after the addition of 30%

of actual salary to his salary as reflected in the salary

certificate, the income of the deceased for the purpose of

computation of loss of dependency of the appellants works out

to ` 7,346/- [actual salary] + ` 2,204/- [30% of his income] = `

9,550/- per month.

7. As regards the deduction to be made towards personal expenses

and maintenance of the deceased, the Hon'ble Supreme Court

in the case of Smt. Sarla Verma (supra) has standardised the

same by expressing the view that where the deceased was

married, the deduction towards personal and living expenses of

the deceased, should be one-third (1/3rd) where the number of

dependent family members is 2 to 3, one-fourth (1/4th) where

the number of dependant family members is 4 to 6, and one-

fifth (1/5th) where the number of dependant family members

exceeds six. The dependant family members in the present

case being four in number, deduction of one-fourth (1/4th) of

the income of the deceased is warranted, which comes to

` 2,387.50 per month. The loss of dependency of the

appellants, thus, works out to ` 7,162.50 per month, that is,

` 85,950/- per annum.

8. Adverting next to the aspect of the multiplier to be adopted for

augmenting the aforesaid multiplicand, the deceased was

admittedly 45 years of age. He, thus, fell in the age-group of

victims between 41 to 45 years of age. For the said age-group,

in consonance with the judgment in the case of Sarla Verma

(supra), the appropriate multiplier would be the multiplier of

14, though in accordance with the II Schedule, the appropriate

multiplier is set out as that of 15. Adopting the multiplier of

14, the loss of dependency of the appellants comes to

` 85,950/- X 14 = ` 12,03,300/- (Rupees twelve lakhs three

thousands and three hundred only).

9. The learned Tribunal has awarded a sum of ` 15,000/- towards

the loss of estate and the loss of consortium but no amount

whatsoever has been awarded for the loss of love and affection.

Accordingly, a sum of ` 5,000/- towards funeral expenses and

last rites of the deceased, and a further sum of ` 5,000/-

towards the loss of love and affection of the deceased are

awarded to the appellants, that is, in all a sum of ` 12,28,300/-

per month. Interest @ 7.5% p.a. is awarded on the enhanced

amount of compensation from the date of the institution of the

petition till its realization.

10. The award amount as enhanced alongwith the interest thereon

shall be paid to the appellants by the Insurance Company

within four weeks from today.

11.The appeal is allowed in the above terms.

12.Records of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal be sent back to

the concerned Tribunal.

REVA KHETRAPAL (JUDGE) July 15, 2011 sk