- (1.) CHALLENGE in this appeal is to the judgment and award dated 10th March, 2004 rendered by Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Bandikui, District Dausa whereby the learned Tribunal assessed the monthly income of the deceased to be Rs. 2000/- and after applying the multiplier of 16 and deducting 1/3rd, which the deceased would have incurred had he been alive, decreed an amount of Rs. 3,01,000/- in favour of claimants-appellants and against the non claimants-respondents. The instant appeal has been filed by the appellants for enhancement of quantum of compensation.
(2.) LEARNED counsel for the appellants canvassed that the accident took place in the year 2003. He further canvassed that if we taken into consideration Rs. 68/- per day to be the minimum wages as per Minimum Wages Act, the monthly income of the deceased comes to Rs. 2040/-, but the learned Tribunal arbitrarily assessed Rs. 2000/- to be the monthly income of the deceased. He further canvassed that in view of the judgment rendered by Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Smt. Sarla Verma and Others Versus Delhi Transport Corporation and Another reported in 2009 (2) TAC 677 (S.C.), looking to the number of dependents, which are six in number in the instant case, the deductions should have been 1/5th towards personal living expenses of the deceased, but the learned Tribunal deducted 1/3rd as personal living expenses of the deceased. Thus, the learned Tribunal erred while computing the quantum of compensation. Hence, the quantum of compensation needs to be recalculated and impugned award deserves to be modified. Having heard the learned counsel for the parties and carefully perused the impugned award, in view of the judgment rendered by Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Smt. Sarla Verma (supra) and looking to the number of the dependents, which are six in number, the learned Tribunal is found to have committed error while deducting 1/3rd of the personal expenses of the deceased. Hence, after deducting 1/5th of the personal expenses of the deceased, the quantum of compensation is recomputed as under:- Personal expenses of the deceased = Rs. 2040 X 1/5th = Rs. 408/- After deducting personal expenses of the deceased, the annual dependency is Rs. 2040 - 408 X 12 = Rs. 19,584/- and on applying the multiplier of 16, the loss of income comes to Rs. 3,13,344/-. After adding Rs. 10,000/- awarded under the head of consortium; Rs. 25,000/- awarded under the head of love and affection (Rs. 5000/- to each dependent); and Rs. 10,000/- awarded under the head of funeral expenses, the total amount of compensation comes to Rs. 3,58,344/-. Thus, the claimants appellants are held entitled to claim compensation of Rs. 3,58,344/- instead of Rs. 3,01,000/- from the respondents non claimants. The claimants-respondents are further held entitled to claim interest @ 6% per annum on the enhanced amount of compensation from the date of filing the claim petition till the amount is actually realized. Rest of the terms under the award shall remain unchanged. The impugned award stands modified, as indicated here-in-above. In the result, the appeal stands partly allowed.;