National Insurance Company Ltd. vs Rekha Rekha Vs Bantu Yadav

M.C. Sharma, J.—Since both these civil misc.appeals arise out of the common award dated 06/10/2007 passed by the court of learned Additional District Judge (Fast Track) No. 6, Jaipur City, Jaipur, they are being disposed of by this common judgment.

Brief facts of the case are that on 10/06/2005, Jairam Yadav @ Jagdish Yadav husband of claimant-Smt. Rekha was driving the motorcycle and going from Dudu to Jaipur. His friend Khemchand was sitting on the motorcycle as a pillion rider. When they reached about 2.30 p.m. near Shyam Plyment at National Highway No. 8, Truck No. RJ-14-1G-1107 dashed the motorcycle from behind, due to which, Jairam Yadav @Jagdish Yadav husband of claimant-Smt.Rekha died, whereas Khemchand, pillion rider received injuries.

Thereafter, two claim petitions were filed claiming amount of compensation, one by Smt. Rekha, wife of the deceased-Jairam Yadav @ Jagdish Yadav (claimant herein) and another by Khemchand Kumawat for the injuries received by him in the accident. Notices were issued and thereafter written statement of defence was filed. Issues were framed and after hearing the learned for both the sides, the learned Tribunal passed the impugned judgment and award dated 06/10/2007. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and award, this S.B. Civil Misc.Appeal No. 4127/2007 has been filed by the National Insurance Company Ltd. assailing the quantum of the compensation, whereas S.B. Civil Misc. Appeal No. 405/2008 has been filed by claimants Smt.Rekha and others for enhancement of compensation.

Shri V.P. Mathur, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant-National Insurance Company Ltd. has argued that the learned Tribunal while passing the impugned award, has failed to appreciate the material available on record pursuant to the provisions of law. The Tribunal has passed the award without considering the provisions of the principle of natural justice in which the relevant proposition of public policy for plying the vehicle at a public place as defined in Section 2 of the Motor Vehicles Act has not taken note by the Tribunal. It has also not considered the averments so made by the counsel for the insurance company in the written statement as well as the preliminary objections regarding non-maintainability of the claim petition. The finding of the Tribunal on Issue No. 4 regarding quantum of compensation was contrary to the statements of AW 1 and AW 3 and also not in accordance with law. It was not proved before the Tribunal that AW 3 was the correct person on whose statement the Tribunal decided Issue No. 4 in favour of the claimant regarding quantum of compensation. The Tribunal has wrongly computed the annual income of the deceased to be Rs. 60,000/- per annum and ignored the documents as Ex. 12 and Ex. 13 to the contrary. Thus, the award of compensation to the tune of Rs. 7,73,000/- is towards the higher side and thus, the impugned award is liable to be set-aside.

Shri K.N. Tiwari, learned counsel for the claimants argued that according to the post-mortem report (Ex. 11), the age of the deceased was 25 years at the time of accident and according to the second schedule, the deceased come into the age group of 25-30 years and the multiplier of 18 ought to have been applied, whereas the learned Tribunal has applied the wrong multiplier of 17. The deceased at the relevant time was earning Rs. 5,000/- per month and he was 25 years of age at the time of accident and in future, he must have earned double of the aforesaid amount but the learned Tribunal has not properly considered the future prospects of the deceased. The Tribunal has also erred in law while making deductions of 1/3rd, whereas as per the settled proposition of law recently laid down by the Supreme Court, 1/3rd personal deductions should not be uniform and rather, it should not be taken into consideration and should take note of income ahead and living standard of the person concerned. The learned Tribunal has also awarded Rs. 10,000/- under the head of ''loss of consortium'' and Rs. 5,000/- under the head of ''loss of love and affection'', which are towards the lower side. Rs. 5,000/- awarded towards the ''funeral expenses'' is also towards the lower side. The rate of interest on the compensation @ 6% p.a. is also towards the lower side and it should be @ 9% p.a.

I have heard learned counsel for the parties and carefully perused the relevant material made available to me.

I am in unison with the findings arrived at by the learned Tribunal. The learned Tribunal is found to have dealt with each and every aspect of the matter.

Looking to the facts and circumstances of the case, I do not think it proper to interfere in the impugned judgment and award passed by the learned Tribunal and thus, both the appeals, filed by the National Insurance Company Ltd. and claimants Smt. Rekha & Ors. being without any substance are hereby dismissed after confirming the judgment and award passed by the learned Tribunal.