Shalini Mehrotra vs Bashir Ahmed

Jitendra Chauhan, J.—The present appeal has been preferred by the claimant-appellants, seeking enhancement of the amount of compensation awarded vide impugned award dated 06.08.1996, passed by the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Sonepat (for short, ''the Tribunal''), on account of the death of Vikash Mehrotra, in a motor vehicular accident which took place on 12.11.1994. The learned counsel for the appellants contends that the learned Tribunal erred in applying a deduction of 1/3rd-which is on higher side. It is further contended that the amount awarded under the other heads, i.e. ''loss of consortium 1 and ''love and affection'' and ''funeral expenses'', is also on the lower side.

On the other hand, the learned counsel for the respondent-Insurance Company has vehemently opposed the present appeal.

I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.

It is evident from the record that deceased, Vikash Mehrotra, died in the accident in question, leaving behind five dependents, being widow, two minor children, mother and father. The learned Tribunal has applied deduction to the tune of 1/3, which is in contravention to the law laid down by Hon''ble the Apex Court in Smt. Sarla Verma and Others Vs. Delhi Transport Corporation and Another, . Therefore, the deduction to be applied in the present case is decreased from 1/3 to 1/4. So the annual dependency of the claimants comes to Rs. 52,665/-. Multiplier of 18 has been correctly applied. The total dependency comes to Rs. 9,47,970/-. Rs. 2,00,000/- were correctly awarded as treatment charges.

Furthermore, Keeping in view the law laid down by the Hon''ble Supreme Court in Vimal Kanwar and Others Vs. Kishore Dan and Others, , the compensation under the following heads deserves to be allowed, which would meet the ends of justice:-

Accordingly, the enhanced compensation i.e. Rs. 4,11,970/- shall be paid to the claimant-appellant, in the manner indicated in the impugned award, within a period of 45 days from the date of the receipt of the certified copy of this order, failing which, the appellants shall be entitled to get interest @ 7.5 % per annum from the date of the filing of the present appeal, till its realisation. With the aforesaid modification in the impugned award, the present appeal is partly allowed.