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Judgment
Amarjeet Chaudhary, J .
This appeal has been filed by the claimants for enhancement of compensation. The Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Rupnagar on a claim petition filed by five claimants u/s 110-A of the Motor Vehicles Act, awarded Rs. 1,87,800/- as compensation with 12% interest from the date of filing of the claim petition on account of death of Gurdial Chand, who died in a road accident on 20.11.1984.
The challenge to the award is that the Tribunal instead of applying different multipliers in the case of the claimant should have applied uniform multiplier. Another plea is that the dependency of the claimants on the deceased has not been calculated properly.
Mr. L.M. Suri, Sr. Advocate appearing for respondents states that there is no error in the award of the Tribunal and no interference is called for.
I have considered the submissions of the learned counsel for the parties and have perused the paper book. I am of the view that there is scope for enhancement of compensation in this case. It has been proved on record that the deceased was 50 years and 7 months old at the time of the accident and was drawing Rs. 2972/- per month. The Tribunal after deducting l/3rd from the salary assessed the monthly dependency of the claimants at Rs. 1400/- per month and by applying different multipliers awarded the compensation. The Tribunal in the case of widow of the deceased applied the multiplier of 16, whereas in case of Savita Kumari and Kavita, claimants No. 2 and 3 respectively applied the multiplier of 6 and in case of Munish Kumar and Sushil Kumar, claimants No. 4 and 5, minor sons of deceased applied the multiplier of 8. By adopting different multipliers, the Tribunal held that the widow of the deceased would be entitled to Rs. 67,200/- as compensation, Savita Kumar and Kavita would get Rs. 50400/- (Rs. 25,200/- each), Munish Kumar and Sushil Kumar would get Rs. 30,200/- and Rs. 37,000/- respectively.
In the instant case the Tribunal had held ail the claimants to be equally dependent upon the deceased. I find no rationale in the approach of the Tribunal in applying different multipliers for the reason that if all the claimants were equally dependent on the deceased, then they ought to have been held entitled to a uniform multiplier and further shared the amount proportionately.
In Lachman Singh and others v. Gurmit Kaur. (1979) 81 PLR 1, a Full Bench of this Court held that for the purpose of calculating the just compensation, annual dependency of the dependents should be determined in terms of the annual loss occurring to them due to the abrupt termination of life. For this purpose, annual earning of the deceased at the time of the accident and the amount out of the same which he was spending for the maintenance of the dependents will be the determining factor. This basic figure will then be multiplied by a suitable multiplier.
Keeping in view the age of the deceased and the age of the children. I am of the view that the Tribunal should have applied a common multiplier of 12 in case of all the claimants. The annual dependency of the claimants was rightly assessed at Rs, 16,800/-. By applying the multiplier of 12 the total compensation to which the claimants would be entitled to, comes to Rs. 2,01,600/-. The compensation amount shall be shared by the claimants in the following manner:-
Claimants:-
Smt. Nirmal Kanta : Rs. 76,000/- 2. Savita Kumari : Rs. 27,200/- 3. Ms. Kavita : Rs. 27,200/- 4. Munish Kumar : Rs. 32,200/- 5. Sushil Kumar : Rs. 39,000/- ----------------- Rs.2,01,600/- 8. The claimants shall also b entitled to 12% interest on the compensation amount from the date of filing of the claim petition.
This appeal is allowed and award of the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Rupnagar, is modified to the extent indicated above.