National Insurance Co. vs Gouri Shanker and Others

Sajjan Singh Kothari, J.

So far as the deceased housewives are concerned, in the absence of any date and as the housewives were not earning any income, attempt has been made to determine the compensation, on the basis of services rendered by them to the house. On the basis of the age group of the house. On the basis of the age group of the housewives, appropriate multiplier has been applied, but the estimation of the value of services rendered to the house by the housewives, which has been arrived at Rs. 12,000/- per annum in cases of some and Rs. 10,000/- for others, appears to us to be grossly low. It is true that the claimants, who ought to have given datas for determination of compensation, did not assist in any manner by providing the datas for estimating the value of services rendered by such housewives. But even in the absence of such datas and taking into consideration, the multifarious services rendered by the housewives for managing the entire family, even on a modest estimation, should be Rs. 3000/- per month and Rs. 36,000/- per annum. This would apply to all those housewives between the age group of 34 to 59 and such who were active in life. The compensation awarded, therefore should be recalculated, taking the value of services rendered per annum to be Rs. 36,000/- and thereafter applying the multiplier, as has been applied already, and so far as the conventional amount is concerned, the same would be Rs. 50.000/- instead of Rs. 25,000/- given under the Report.