Kishan Devi vs Sultan Singh Sikhwal and Others

S.S. Sodhi, J.—No occasion is provided here for the award of any enhanced compensation to the legal representatives of the deceased claimant Kishan Devi, the mother of Pritam Singh deceased, who was killed on December, 9, 1981 near Daruhera on Jaipur-Delhi road when his bicycle was involved in an accident with the truck DHL 1318. Holding that this accident had been caused entirely due to rash and negligent driving of the truck driver, a sum of Rs. 18,000/- was awarded as compensation to Smt. Kishan Devi mother of the deceased.

It has come on record that the claimant Kishan Devi died on November, 30, 1985. This claim application is now being pursued by her legal representatives which includes her unmarried daughter.

It was the case of the claimants that Pritam Singh deceased was a tailor master working in Delhi and was earning Rs. 500/600 per month. The Tribunal, however, found that there was no satisfactory evidence to establish that the deceased was indeed a tailor master of that he was earning Rs. 500/600 per month as such. In this behalf, it is pertinent to note that claimant Kishan Devi (PW 1) could not state where the deceased was working as tailor master in Delhi, nor indeed could the uncle of the deceased Prabhu Singh disclose this. The Tribunal in this situation treated the potential of the deceased for earning to be that of an unskilled labourer and on that the basis calculated the financial loss to the claimant at Rs. 150/- per month with a multiplier of 10. It may be mentioned here that claimant Kishan Devi did not disclose her age but mentioned that her husband had died three years ago at the age of 80 years. PW 2 Prabhu Singh stated that there was a difference of 20 years in age between the mother and father of the deceased implying thereby that Kishan Devi claimant was about 60 years of age. On this basis, the Tribunal cannot be faulted for having adopted the multiplier of ''10'' and to have assessed the compensation payable to the mother at Rs. 18,000/-. The subsequent intervening fact namely that the claimant died within about 4 years of the accident now leaves no ground to justify any enhancement of compensation payable now on her account to her legal representatives.

A half-hearted attempt was made by counsel for the appellants to seek compensation for the unmarried sister of the deceased on the ground that she had no other source of income left, now that her mother too had died. No such claim can be countenanced as it is now well settled that in the presence of a mother, a sister is not entitled to the compensation and once compensation is granted to the mother, her subsequent death provides the daughter no fresh cause of action to seek compensation.

This appeal is accordingly hereby dismissed. In the circumstances, however, there will be no order as to costs.