Badri Nath and Another vs Sr. Section Engineer Motor and Another

Indermeet Kaur, J.—These three appeals have arisen out of the same incident i.e. the accident occurred on 09.03.2004 at Firozshah Raod and Kasturba Gandhi Marg crossing; a TCR and a Toyota Qualis had collided with one another; there were six passengers in the TCR; five adults and one child; four persons had died and two had suffered injuries. One of the victims was a child victim. All the six petitions have been clubbed and common evidence had been led. The impugned Award dated 06.11.2009 had been passed.

Claim petition No. 520/2007 has been preferred by the legal representatives of the deceased baby Ganga; she was six years of age at the time of accident. Relying upon the judgment of R.K. Malik and Anr. v. Kiran Pal and Ors. II (2009) ACC 705, a sum of Rs. 2,25,000/- had been awarded under the head of pecuniary damages. Under the non-pecuniary head Rs. 10,000/- had been awarded as funeral expenses. This part of the Award has been impugned. Learned Counsel for the Appellant has placed reliance upon a judgment of this Court reported in II (2010) ACC 9 National Insurance Company Ltd. v. Farzana wherein in the case of a child victim Rs. 75,000/- had been awarded for the ''pain and sufferings'' and another sum of Rs. 75,000/- for ''loss of future prospects''; this sum of Rs. 1,50,000/- was awarded under the head of ''non-pecuniary damages''. The total awarded amount would thus in the case of a child victim come to Rs. 3,75,000/-. In the judgment of Farzana (Supra), the Court had placed reliance upon the parameters and guidelines laid down by R.K. Malik (Supra); the impugned Award granting a sum of Rs. 10,000/- under the non-pecuniary head thus suffers from an infirmity. The Appellant in terms of the judgments of R.K. Malik (Supra) and Farzana (Supra) is entitled to Rs. 2,25,000/- under the head of pecuniary damages and a sum of Rs. 1,50,000/- under the head of non-pecuniary damages totaling a sum of Rs. 3,75,000/-. The interest quotient remains the same. The impugned Awarded is accordingly modified in Claim Petition No. 520/2007.

Claim petition No. 506/2007 has been filed by the claimants of the victim Laxmi; she was 38 years of age at the time of accident; she had died about four months after the date of accident which was on 09.03.2004. Learned Counsel for the respondents submits that there is no nexus of the death of the victim with the injuries. Admittedly the victim remained in hospital for two months, contention of the Appellant is that because of the grievous injuries sustained by her, death had resulted. These averments which were made on oath by the claimant of the deceased Laxmi i.e. in the affidavit of Sohan Lal have not been disputed; no cross-examination had been effected of Sohan Lal on this count. Death was clearly correlated to the accident. The affidavit of Sohan Lal had averred that his wife Laxmi was 38 years of age; she was doing work of knitting and stitching and was earning Rs. 4,000/- per month. These facts also not having been controverted, the impugned Award has clearly erred in not granting any amount to the victim of deceased Laxmi on account of ''loss of dependency''. In terms f the judgment of this Court reported in Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. Vs. Pankaj Sharma and others, , a sum of Rs. 3,000/- per month would be the correct figure for computing the income of the house-wife in the absence of any documentary evidence to the contrary. Multiplier applied of 15 in terms of the judgment of Smt. Sarla Verma and Others Vs. Delhi Transport Corporation and Another, ; the amount of Rs. 5,40,000/- is thus calculated under the head of ''loss of dependency''. Under the non-pecuniary damages, medical bills have been reimbursed for Rs. 34,140/-; Rs. 5,000/- on account of special diet and conveyance; Rs. 10,000/- for ''loss of love and affection'' and for funeral expenses Rs. 10,000/-; these amounts have not been assailed. Thus a total sum of Rs. 5,99,140/- is awarded in favour of the claimant; the interest quotient shall remain the same. The impugned Awarded is accordingly modified in Claim Petition No. 506/2007.

Claim Petition No. 512/2007 has been preferred by Suresh who is the legal representatives of deceased Daulat Rani. Daulat Rani was a house-wife; she was aged 45 years and as per the affidavit of her husband, she was doing the work of knitting and stitching and was earning Rs. 3,500/- per month. However in terms of the documentary proof in terms of the judgment of Apex Court reported in III (2010) ACC 313 (SC) Arun Kumar Agarwal and Anr. v. National Insurance Company and Anr. a sum of Rs. 3,000/- per month was taken as the income of the deceased to which multiplier of 14 was applied totaling a sum of Rs. 5,04,000/-; deduction of 1/3rd has been effect therefrom. The Petitioner is aggrieved by this fact. His contention is that no amount should have been deducted and for this proposition he has placed reliance upon Pankaj Sharma (Supra) where also a Bench of this Court had awarded a sum of Rs. 5,04,000/- under the head of ''loss of dependency'' to the claimant of the deceased house-wife i.e. by taking her services to be valued at Rs. 3,000/- per month to which multiplier of 14 was applied. This judgment of Pankaj Sharma had relied upon the ratio judgment of Lata Wadhwa and Others Vs. State of Bihar and Others, . In para 4 of Pankaj Sharma (Supra) a coordinate Bench of this Court has held that in case of Lata Wadhwa (supra) no deduction was made from the value of the services of the deceased house wife and as such deduction from this amount was not permissible. Following the aforenoted ratio, deduction is disallowed. No amount has also been awarded under the head of ''loss of love and affection''. No other modification is made. A sum of Rs. 10,000/- is accordingly awarded under this head. The awarded amount in the aforenoted claim petition would thus come to Rs. 5,24,000/- which would carry interest in terms of the Award. The impugned Awarded is accordingly modified in Claim Petition No. 512/2007.

All the three appeals are disposed of in the above terms.