- (1.) The appellants have challenged the award dated 28.4.2012 passed by M.A.C.T./Additional District Judge, Court No. 10, Meerut in M.A.C. No. 758 of 2010, whereby compensation of Rs. 1,23,300/- together with pendente lite interest @ 6% per annum has been awarded to the appellants on account of death of their unmarried son. We have heard learned Counsel for the appellants and perused the impugned award.
(2.) Learned Counsel for the appellants has argued that learned Tribunal has awarded a meagre amount of compensation; that the monthly income of the deceased has been wrongly taken; that the Tribunal has illegally deducted 40% compensation on the basis of contributory negligence of the deceased and has also illegally deducted 50% from annual income of the deceased while it should have been only 1/3.
(3.) It appears that on 1.3.2010 Anil Kumar the son of the appellants was going to village Noornagar on his motorcycle UP-15W/2809 and when he reached Andhyari Bagh the driver of motorcycle registration No. UP-15AL/8199 driving the vehicle rashly and negligently from opposite side hit the motorcycle of the deceased, who instantaneously died at the spot on account of fatal injury sustained by him in the accident. The parents of the deceased filed claim petition alleging that the deceased was aged about 23 years and his monthly income from agriculture and animal husbandry was Rs. 10,000/-. The owner of the offending motorcycle UP-15AL/8199 denied the accident and insurance company inter alia pleaded breach of contract of insurance. In order to prove their case the claimants had examined Brij Pal P.W. 1 and Satyaveer Singh P.W. 2 and filed copies of FIR, charge sheet, site plan and postmortem report of the deceased. The opposite party No. 1 has filed the driving license, copy of registration certificate and insurance policy. The learned Tribunal after hearing the parties Counsel concluded that the accident took place due to contributory negligence of drivers of both the motorcycles and assessed the contributory negligence of the deceased to the extent of 40%. In the absence of any cogent and reliable evidence pertaining to the income of the deceased the Tribunal has taken his monthly income at Rs. 3,000/-. Since deceased was bachelor so 50% from the annual income was deducted for personal and living expenses of the deceased and the loss of dependency to the extent of 60% has been calculated at Rs. 10,800/- per annum. As the deceased was bachelor so multiplier of '11' according to the age of the claimants was applied to calculate the amount of compensation at Rs. 1,18,800/-. A sum of Rs. 2,000/- for funeral expenses and Rs. 2,500/- for loss of estate has also been awarded to the appellants.;