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Judgment
Subject matter of this appeal is award, dated 18th September, 2012, made by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (III), Shimla, H.P. (for short "the Tribunal") in M.A.C. Petition No. 27S/ 2 of 12/09, titled as Smt. Preeti and others versus Shri Dhirender Singh Chauhan and others, whereby compensation to the tune of Rs. 11,10,000/with interest @ 8% per annum from the date of the petition till its realization came to be awarded in favour of claimants No. 1, 2 & 4 (for short "the claimants") and against the insurer (for short "the impugned award").
The claimants, ownerinsured and driver of the offending vehicle have not questioned the impugned award on any count, thus, has attained finality so far it relates to them.
Appellantinsurer has called in question the impugned award on the grounds taken in the memo of appeal.
Learned counsel for the appellantinsurer argued that the Tribunal has fallen in an error while calculating the compensation for the reason that the deceased was a daily wager and at the relevant point of time, i.e. in the year 2009, the minimum wages prevalent in the State of Himachal Pradesh for daily wager were Rs. 100/per day.
I have gone through the record and the impugned award and am of the considered view that the Tribunal, in para 9 of the impugned award, has fallen in an error in holding that the deceased, being a daily wager, was earning Rs. 300/per day for 25 days in a month and assessing his income to be Rs. 7,500/per month.
The wages of a daily wager, as on today, are not more than Rs. 200/per day. Keeping all the facts in view, it can be safely held that the monthly income of the deceased would have been Rs. 6,000/per month. One third was to be deducted towards his personal expenses in view of the law laid down by the Apex Court in the case titled as Sarla Verma (Smt) and others versus Delhi Transport Corporation and another, reported in (2009) 6 Supreme Court Cases 121, which was upheld by a larger Bench of the Apex Court in Reshma Kumari & Ors. versus Madan Mohan & Anr., reported in 2013 AIR SCW 3120. Accordingly, it is held that the claimants have lost source of dependency to the tune of Rs. 4,000/per month.
The deceased was 23 years of age at the time of the accident. Thus, the Tribunal has rightly applied the multiplier of ''18'' in view of Sarla Verma''s and Reshma Kumari''s cases (supra) read with the Second Schedule appended with the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short "MV Act").
Viewed thus, the claimants are held entitled to Rs. 4,000/x 12 x 18 = Rs. 8,64,000 under the head ''loss of income/dependency''.
The claimants are also held entitled to Rs. 10,000/each under the heads ''loss of consortium'', ''loss of estate'', ''loss of love and affection'' and ''funeral expenses''.
Viewed thus, it is held that the claimants are entitled to compensation to the tune of Rs. 8,64,000/+ Rs. 10,000/+ Rs. 10,000/+ Rs. 10,000/+ Rs. 10,000/= Rs. 9,04,000/with interest as awarded by the Tribunal.
The awarded amount be released in favour of the claimants strictly as per the terms and conditions contained in the impugned award after proper identification through payee''s account cheque or by depositing the same in their respective bank accounts.
Excess amount, if any, be released in favour of the appellantinsurer through payee''s account cheque.
Having glance of the above discussions, the impugned award is modified, as indicated hereinabove, and the appeal is disposed of accordingly.
Send down the record after placing copy of the judgment on Tribunal''s file.