Shanti Devi and Others vs Deeparam Choudhary and Others

Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, J.—1. On 21.10.2005, at about 7:30 AM, Ranjeet Singh was hit by a truck bearing Registration No. RJ 19 1G 3327. Ranjeet Singh died in the hospital. Shanti Devi mother, Bholi Devi widow along with three children of the deceased filed a claim petition. The court of Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Beawar, vide impugned award dated 30.3.2007 awarded Rs. 3,33,400/- as compensation to the claimants.

Aggrieved against the award, the claimants have preferred the present appeal seeking enhancement of compensation awarded by the Tribunal.

The finding given by the Tribunal that the offending truck had caused accident in rash and negligent manner, has not been assailed before this Court.

The salary certificate of the deceased was brought on record as Exhibit-14. As per salary certificate, the deceased was working in the State of Gujarat as Cement Article Moulder and was drawing Rs. 6,000/- per month as salary. It was stated in the said salary certificate that along with his work deceased was also doing over time and in all was earning Rs. 7,200/- per month. The Tribunal held that the salary certificate has not been proved, as the person who issued the said salary certificate did not appear in the witness box and thus, the Tribunal ignored the same. However, the Tribunal considering the deceased to be semi skilled worker, assessed his income as Rs. 2,400/- per month. In salary certificate (Exhibit-14) it is specifically stated that the deceased was also supplementing his income by doing part time work. Considering that the deceased was semi skilled worker and he was working away from the house in the State of Gujarat as Cement Article Moulder, this Court has no hesitation to hold that the deceased must have been doing part time job also. Therefore, the part time wages have not been taken into consideration by the Tribunal. Hence, the income of the deceased taking part time wages is assessed to Rs. 3,000/- per month by increasing the earning of deceased Rs. 2,400/- per month assessed by Tribunal by awarding Rs. 600/- as part time wages. Thus, his annual income is to be construed as Rs. 36,000/-.

The deceased was survived by his mother Shanti Devi aged 50 years, wife Bholi Devi aged 24 years, Master Sardar Singh and Vishal Singh aged 3 and 2 1/2 respectively and Mst. Kajal aged 2 years. Thus, five persons were dependent upon the deceased.

It has been held in Sarla Verma (Smt) & Ors. v. Delhi Transport Corporation & Anr. [, (2009) 6 SCC 121], that where number of dependent family members is between four to six, 1/4th should be deducted from the income of the deceased towards personal expenses. The Tribunal below has gravely erred to deduct 1/3rd as personal living expenses without taking into consideration the fact that five persons of the family were dependent upon the deceased. Hence, 1/4th is liable to be deducted as personal living expenses of the deceased.

In the present case, the deceased on the date of incident was 30 years old.

Counsel appearing for the claimant-appellants has submitted that in the case of Rajesh and others v. Rajbir Singh and Others, reported in A.I.R. 2003 S.C. 674, three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court held that in case, deceased is less than forty-years of age and is self-employed with fixed wages, there must be an addition of 50% to the actual income of the deceased while computing future prospects.

It will be apposite to note here Para 11 of the judgment rendered in the case of Rajesh & Others (supra):--

"Since, the Court in Santosh Devi''s case (supra) actually intended to follow the principle in the case of salaried persons as laid in Sarla Verma''s case (supra) and to make it applicable also to the self-employed and persons on fixed wages, it is clarified that the increase in the case of those groups is not 30% always; it will also have a reference to the age. In other words, in the case of self-employed or persons with fixed wages, in case, the deceased victim was below 40 years, there must be an addition of 50% to the actual income of the deceased while computing future prospects. Needless to say that the actual income should be income after paying the tax, if any. Addition should be 30% in case the deceased was in the age group of 40 to 50 years."

The above view of the Supreme Court has been recently followed by another three-judge Bench in the case of Munna Lal Jain and another v. Vipin Kumar Sharma and others, reported in , MACD 2015 (SC) 139.

Following dictum of the ratio of law laid down in Rajesh and others (Supra) and Munna Lal Jain and another (supra), this Court is of the view that 50% of the actual income determined by the ld. tribunal is required to be added under the heading of "future prospects".

It has come in the evidence that Rajesh @ Raju, deceased was a young man aged of thirty-years and appellant/widow was aged twenty-eight years. In the young age, appellant/widow had lost her husband. In legal parlance, "consortium" is the right of the spouse to the company, care, help, comfort, guidance, society, solace, affection and sexual relations with his or her mate. The loss of companionship, love, care and protection etc., as per ratio of law laid down in the case of Rajesh and Others v. Rajbir Singh and Others, reported in , (2013) 9 S.C.C. 54 is required to be enhanced.

Considering that the accident had taken place in the year 2005, this Court is of the view that consortium should have been awarded to widow to the tune of Rs. 50,000/-.

The Tribunal also in a very meagre manner had awarded Rs. 2,000/- as funeral expenses, which is required to be enhanced to Rs. 15,000/-. This Court is further of the view that each child is also entitled to Rs. 30,000/- towards loss of care, affection and guidance of the father.

As a result of above discussions, the compensation to be awarded to the claimant-appellants by learned Tribunal is required to be reassessed as under:--

Thus, the amount awarded by the learned Tribunal is enhanced to Rs. 8,73,500/- in above terms. The said amount will carry interest @ 6% per annum from the date of filing of the petition till realization.

It is hereby, ordered that the enhanced amount shall be kept in the Monthly Income Scheme in the post office initially for a lock-up period of three years and the interest accrued upon the deposit shall be paid to the claimants proportionately on monthly basis.

The trial court in the best interest of the claimants, shall keep the amount in the Monthly Income Scheme with the Indian Post Office and shall open separate accounts in the name of each claimant. The amount due to minor daughter shall be encashed at time of her marriage.

However, a further direction is hereby, issued to the Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Dausa to acquaint the claimants regarding the amount, which has accrued to them by way of enhancement and the fact that the amount shall be kept in Monthly Income Scheme in the Indian Post Office for the benefit of the claimants.

The above direction regarding deposit in Monthly Income Scheme with Indian Post Office has been issued as it has been brought to the notice of this Court, that go between or relations fritter away with the amount awarded as compensation, on the ground that money has been spent towards litigation expenses.

With the above modification in the award passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Dausa, Camp Bandikui, present appeal stands disposed of.