Smt. Raj Kaur and Another vs Satpal Singh and Others

K. Kannan, J.—The appeal is for enhancement of compensation determined for the death of a male aged 44 years where the Court had determined a compensation of Rs. 5,04,000/-. He was an agriculturist and the Court had provided for an assessment of income at Rs. 4500/-, taken the dependency at Rs. 3,000/-and after applying the formula prescribed by the decision of the Supreme Court in Smt. Sarla Verma and Others Vs. Delhi Transport Corporation and Another, adopted a multiplier of 14 corresponding to the age of the deceased and assessed the compensation at Rs. 05,04,000/-. Learned Counsel for the appellants states that in terms of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Santosh Devi Vs. National Insurance Company Ltd. and others in Civil Appeal No. 3723 of 2012 dated 23.04.2012, the compensation must provide for a prospect of increase for an agriculturist as well and the income assessed at Rs. 4500/-was bound to have increased over a period of time. The increase provided in Santosh Devi''s case (supra) was in a case where the Court had originally taken the income to be Rs. 1500/- and provision for increase had been to Rs. 1950/-. Where the income itself has been taken as Rs. 4500/-for an agriculturist where the agriculture land is still available, I do not think that there is need for any further provision for increase.

The award is confirmed and the appeal is dismissed.