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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
