Veena Bansal and Others vs Raghuraj and Others

Mool Chand Garg, J.—This is an appeal filed by the Appellant seeking enhancement of the compensation awarded on a claim petition filed u/s 140 and 166 of the Motor Vehicle Act on the allegations that Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal, the deceased met with a vehicular accident in the night intervening 12th and 13th March, 1997 and succumbed to his injuries.

At that time, the deceased was 41 years of age and was doing whole sale business of spices as a partner in the firm M/s Sataya Narain Pawan Kumar. It was alleged that he used to earn Rs. 15,000-20,000/- per month and was paying income tax for the last 20 years. His income was increasing steadily and it would have increased to Rs. 30,000/- per month.

On the fateful night, the deceased was going while driving Maruti Car No. DL-4-CC-5704 from Safdarjung Hospital side towards Dhaula Kuan side in order to go to his house when he met with an accident with a truck No. DHL-4272 allegedly driven in a rash and negligent manner which was coming from Dhaula Kuan side. As stated above, the deceased suffered fatal injuries and succumbed to his injuries. On that basis, the claimants/Appellants filed a claim petition seeking compensation on various heads.

The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal taking note of the income tax return which was filed on record by Appellants for the year 1996-1997 as well as for previous years assessed the income of the deceased for the purpose of dependency for the relevant year at Rs. 70,660/- which was the income shown in the return filed for the year 1996-97 i.e. for the financial year 1995-96. Whereas according to the Appellants, the income tax return for the year 1997-98 which was filed by the legal heirs of the deceased showed his income was at Rs. 1,15,105/-. Taking multiplier of 15, considering the age of the deceased being 44 years and taking his annual income at Rs. 70,660/- and after deducting 1/4th from the said amount towards personal expenses, the Tribunal decided the compensation by taking Rs. 52,995/- as the figure relevant for deciding the dependency per annum and awarded compensation of Rs. 8,12,5000/- after also adding a sum of Rs. 10,000/- on account of loss of expectation of life, Rs. 5,000/- for funeral expenses and Rs. 2,500/- for the loss to estate. Interest @9% p.a. was also awarded on the amount from the date of filing of the claim petition till payment. The amount was apportioned in terms of para-16 of the award.

It is the submission of the Appellant that while deciding the dependency, the amount of annual income has not been assessed correctly inasmuch as from the income tax return which was placed on record, it was clear that the deceased was having steady increase in the income. As such, even if the Tribunal was not convinced about the income tax return filed by the legal heirs showing a quantum jump in the income of the deceased, the Tribunal ought to have considered reasonable increase considering the previous years'' figures in deciding the annual income of the deceased at the time of his death.

It is also submitted that the future prospect have not been taken into consideration by the Tribunal at all.

The Appellants have relied upon the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Smt. Sarla Verma and Others Vs. Delhi Transport Corporation and Another, where all these aspects have been considered.

Nobody has come forward to opposed the appeal inasmuch as while Respondent No. 1, 2 and 4 are ex party, Respondent No. 3 though caused appearance once, have not cared to appear in the matter again. This matter is shown in the regular board at least for the last three days but nobody has appeared for the insurance company. Even Mr. Pankaj Seth who was personally informed by learned Counsel for the Appellant has not cared to appear.

In these circumstances, while considering the reasonable increase in the income for the financial year 1996-97 from Rs. 70,660/-, to Rs. 75,000/- in view of the income tax return of the previous years and by allowing a deduction of Rs. 5000/- towards income tax payable as the deceased had been claiming that he was an income tax payee and thereby fixing the annual income of the deceased at Rs. 70,000/- and then adding a sum of Rs. 21,000/- towards future prospects and thereafter deducting 1/4th of the amount towards personal expenses taking into consideration the number of dependants, annual income of the deceased for the purpose of calculating dependency is fixed at Rs. 68,250/-. In this case, after applying a multiplier of 15, as applied by the Tribunal, the amount of compensation to be payable to the dependents of the deceased arrives at Rs. 10,23,750/-. After adding a sum of Rs. 10,000/- on account of loss of expectation of life, Rs. 5,000/- for funeral expenses and Rs. 2,500/- for the loss to estate, the total amount payable to the Appellants is worked out at Rs. 10,41,250/- which is rounded to Rs. 10,42,000/- This amount shall be recoverable from the Respondent jointly and severely along with interest @9% p.a. as awarded by the Tribunal from the date of claim petition. The apportionment of the amount shall be done in terms of para-16 of the award of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal dated 08.10.2003.

With these observations, the appeal is disposed of with no order as to costs.