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Judgment
Gautam Kumar Choudhary, J
Heard, learned counsel for the parties.
Claimants/ appellants have preferred this appeal for enhancement of compensation awarded by Presiding Officer, MVACT, Hazaribagh in Claim Case No.11 of 2006 against the insurance company.
Earlier the notice was issued on the respondent nos. 2 and 3 by which the owner and insurance company have already appeared. The driver was impleaded as respondent no.3, but as per the service report he has died. Accordingly, appeal stands abated against him.
Claimants are the legal heirs and descendants of Darshan Rana (deceased). The deceased and one Suresh Yadav who were returning to his house by Hero Honda motorcycle no. JH-02 C-4079 which met with an accident with LP truck no. JH 05F 5075 resulting into his death. Learned Tribunal awarded a compensation of Rs. 2,57,000/- as compensation to the claimant(s) and Rs. 5,000/- as loss of consortium to appellant no. 1 who happens to be the wife of the deceased.
There is no contrary evidence led by the Insurance Company in support of the case that it was a case of contributory negligence. Despite this, a finding of contributory negligence has been recorded.
It is argued by the learned counsel on behalf of the appellants that award of compensation is not as per the ratio laid down by Hon’ble the Supreme Court in the case of National Insurance Company Limited vs. Pranay Sethi, reported in (2017) 16 SCC 680 and the compensation has not been awarded under the following heads :-
I. Future prospects have not been calculated.
II. The funeral expenses and consortium has been awarded for a sum of Rs. 2000/- and Rs.5,000/- only.
III. There were more than three dependants, but the dependency has been computed by subtracting one third as personal expenses of the deceased instead of one fourth.
IV. As per the post-mortem examination report, the multiplier has not been computed;
V. Simple interest @ 6% per annum has been allowed from the date of framing of the issues whereas, the law is settled that compensation along with interest from the date of filing of filing of claim till its realization.
Learned counsel for the Insurance Company, Mr. Manish Kumar has defended the impugned award. It is submitted that as per the ration card which has been brought on record, the age of the deceased was to be 42 years and 6 months at the time of accident and as per the schedule, a multiplier of 14 will be applicable for the said age. However, learned counsel could not controvert the argument advanced on behalf of the appellants for the deficiency in the compensation amount as it was not as per the settled law with regard to the award of compensation under different heads.
Having considered the submissions advanced on behalf of both the sides, this Court finds that there is merit in the submissions advanced on behalf of the appellant that finding of contributory negligence is perverse in as much as no contrary evidence regarding the negligence of the deceased had been led by the Insurance Company.
Furthermore, the compensation has not been made as per the settled law. In this view of matter taking Rs.4000/- as the monthly income of the deceased having age of 42 years, the final compensation may be computed. The final calculation will be as under :-
Annual income of the deceased taking Rs.4,000/- as monthly income + 25% as
Future prospect
Rs.4,000/- X 12 = Rs.48,000/- +
Rs.48,000/- X ¼ as
Future prospect = Rs.60,000/-
Annual Dependency after deducting 1/4th
Rs.60,000/- Rs.15,000/-=
Rs.45,000/-
Multiplier taking 42 years as the age of the deceased at the time of
the accident
14
Rs.45,000/- X 14=Rs.6,30,000/-
Loss of Estate, Funeral
Expenses and Loss of Consortium
Rs.70,000/-
Rs.70,000/-
Total
Rs.7,00,000/-
The claimants/ appellants shall, therefore, be entitled to get compensation of Rs.7,00,000/- along with interest @6% per annum from the date of filing of the claim application till the date of its realization after deducting the amount already disbursed to the claimants. The Insurance Company is directed to make the payment of the compensation amount to the learned Tribunal within six weeks from this order/ judgment. Thereafter the learned Tribunal shall disburse the compensation amount to the claimants within two weeks.
Misc. Appeal is accordingly allowed.