- (1.) F.A.O. No. 72 of 2012: The appeal is for enhancement of compensation for the death of a male, aged 19 years, who was studying mechanical engineering at Shahid Udham Singh College, Tangori. The claimants are his parents. The Tribunal assessed his income notionally at Rs. 15,000 per year, made a 50 per cent deduction for his personal expenses and took the contribution to the family at Rs. 7,500, adopting a multiplier of 14 the Tribunal awarded a compensation of Rs. 2,15,000. The amount is said to be very low.
(2.) In case of death of a bachelor with prospects of his own marriage and the likely reduction of contribution to the family, the extent of dependency is always calculated differently than how it is done for a spouse or children. Again, where the claimants are aged parents, the choice of multiplier would be appropriately dealt with by providing for a multiplier that would have a bearing to the age of the younger of the parents in preference to the age of the deceased. To the extent to which the trial court provided for a 50 per cent deduction towards personal expenses and providing of a choice of multiplier at 14,I shall not find fault with the award of the Tribunal. However, the notional income projected by the Tribunal, in my view, is wrong, particularly in view of the fact that the deceased was an engineering student and was in the 6th semester. The likely income of such a person during the time when he died ought to be assumed to be relatively at a higher scale on the assumption that in another two years, he would have completed his studies and would have joined the job market. In Arvind Kumar Mishra v. New India Assurance Co. Ltd., 2010 ACJ 2867, for a 70 per cent disability suffered by an engineering college student for accident that took place in 1993, the Supreme Court projected a salary of Rs. 5,000 per month and determined the compensation. In this case, the accident has taken place in 2010, the likely income could be easily assumed to be at least Rs. 10,000 per month, adopt a 50 per cent discount and take the contribution to the family at Rs. 5,000 per month. I will adopt the multiplier of 14 as taken by the Tribunal and take the loss of dependency at Rs. 8,40,000. The court below has already provided Rs. 1,00,000 as special damages, which I retain and also retain Rs. 5,000 provided for funeral expenses and another Rs. 5,000 for loss to the estate. In all, the total amount of compensation would come to Rs. 9,50,000. The amount in excess of what has been awarded by the Tribunal already shall bear interest at 6 per cent from the date of petition till the date of payment. F.A.O. No. 126 of 2012:
(3.) This case is in relation to the death of yet another engineering college student traveling with the deceased in respect of which the connected F.A.O. No. 72 of 2012 has been dealt with. The only difference that has to be applied to this case is that the age of the claimant No. 1 was relatively higher than the age in F.A.O. No. 72 of 2012 and instead of a multiplier of 14, I would adopt a multiplier of 13 and in all other aspects, the same method of calculation is adopted. The amount of compensation would come to Rs. 7,80,000. The court below has already provided for Rs. 1,00,000 as special damages, which I retain and also retain Rs. 5,000 provided for funeral expenses and another Rs. 5,000 towards loss to estate. In all, the total amount of compensation would come to Rs. 8,90,000. The amount in excess of what has been awarded by the Tribunal already shall bear interest at 6 per cent from the date of petition till the date of payment.;