BHASKAR BHATTACHARYA - (1.) THIS Appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act is at the instance of Insurance Company and is directed against an award dated April 26, 2004 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (Main), Vadodara in MACP No.1690 of 1991 thereby disposing of an application under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act by awarding a sum of Rs.11,21,500/ - with interest at the rate of 12% per annum from the date of filing of the claim -application till December 31, 1999 and at the rate of 9% per annum thereafter, till realisation.
(2.) IT appears from record that a fatal accident occurred on June 7, 1991 when the deceased Rajendra Sharma, who was designated as Principal of Rangers College, died in a road accident. The deceased was driving a jeep on the National Highway. A dumper bearing registration No.GQB 6534 driven by respondent No.1 which was going ahead of the jeep, abruptly stopped without indicating or giving any recognised signal, as a result, the jeep collided with the said dumper resulting in the death of the victim. The claimants demanded an amount of Rs.40 lakh as compensation on the allegation that the victim was earning Rs.6000/ - a month at the relevant time and in near future, he would have got promotion. There is no dispute that the victim was aged 39 years at the time of accident and was in Indian Forest Service ordinarily retiring at the age of 60 years. The Tribunal below, on consideration of the materials on record, came to the conclusion that in the accident in question the victim had contributory negligence to the extent of 50%. While calculating the amount of compensation, the approach of the Tribunal was as follows: -
(3.) ACCORDING to the Tribunal, although the victim was earning Rs.6000/ - a month, at the time of retirement he would have received a salary of Rs.30,000/ - a month and adding the last salary of the deceased with the one received at the time of accident, the total comes to Rs.36,000/ - and for the purpose of just and reasonable amount of compensation under the head of loss of future dependency benefit, it could be said to be that the average future monthly prospective income of the victim would be Rs.36,000 / 2 = Rs.18,000/ - a month. Thereafter, the Tribunal below deducted one -third of the income for the personal expenditure of the victim and then, arrived at a figure of Rs.12,000/ - as loss to future monthly dependency. Thereafter, the Tribunal multiplied the said amount by 12 to arrive at an annual figure and then applied the multiplier of 15 to reach a total figure of Rs.21,60,000/ -. In addition to the aforesaid amount, the Tribunal further awarded Rs.20,000/ - towards loss of estate, Rs.3,000/ - towards funeral expenditure, Rs.30,000/ - towards medical expenditure and Rs.30,000/ - towards pain, shock and suffering. Thus, the total amount came to Rs.22,43,000/ - and thereafter, deducting 50% towards contributory negligence, the Tribunal held that it was a fit case for grant of Rs.11,21,500/ -.;