Hon'ble SINGH, J. - (1.) ALL these three miscellaneous appeals, under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, arise out of an accident, which took place on 27.09.1995 involving a tanker bearing registration No.GJ -12 -T -9648 resulting into the death of three persons namely, (i) Narendra Kumar, (ii) Chandra Prakash and (iii) Mewaram and causing injuries to two persons namely, Tara Chand and Rajendra. S.B.C.M.A. No.679/2000 (Smt. Harju & Ors. vs. Mahadev & Anr.)
(2.) MISCELLANEOUS Appeal bearing No.679 of 2000 has been filed by the claimants -Smt. Harju Devi and others against the award dated 29th March, 2000 passed by the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Ajmer in claim case No.85/98 (258/95) in respect of death of Mewaram. Submission of the learned counsel for the claimant -appellants in this miscellaneous appeal is that the learned Tribunal gave a finding with regard to the age of the deceased as 45 years and has erroneously taken the multiplier as 12 only, whereas, in fact, it ought to have been 15 in accordance with the provisions of the II Schedule to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. The learned counsel for the respondent insurance -company, on the other hand, contended that the learned Tribunal has taken the income of the deceased as Rs.2000/ - per month, but while calculating the dependency has only deducted an amount of Rs.l/4th of the amount in place of l/3rd and has calculated the amount on the basis of the monthly income as Rs.1500/ - whereas in fact if Rs.2000/ - is considered as the monthly income then annual income will be Rs.24,000/ - and after l/3rd deduction the dependency would be only Rs.16,000/ - per annum and not Rs.1500/ - per month as calculated. I have considered the aforesaid submissions. So far as the submission of the learned counsel for the claimant - appellants is concerned that the learned Tribunal has erred in taking the multiplier of 12 only in place of 15, there appears to be substance in the same. As per the provisions of the II Schedule to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, in the case of the deceased being 45 years of age the multiplier would be 15.
(3.) HOWEVER, at the same time, there appears to be a substance in the submission of the learned counsel for the respondents that the dependency after deducting the personal expenses ought to have been reduced to Rs.16,000/ - per annum in place of 1500/ - per month as has been calculated by the learned Tribunal taking personal expenses as l/3rd. In the facts and circumstances, therefore, the loss of income on account of death of Mevaram to the claimants is assessed as (2000x12)=Rs.24,000/ -, less l/3rd = Rs.l6000xl5 - Rs.2,40,000/ - less paid under the award Rs.2,16,000/ - i.e. a balance of Rs.24,000/ - only. The learned Tribunal had awarded under the aforesaid head an amount of Rs.2,16,000/ -, which deserves to be enhanced to Rs.2,40,000/ -. The rest of the award is maintained.;