Smt. Krishna Kinra and Others vs Dalip Singh and Others

Amarjeet Chaudhary, J.—This appeal is filed by the claimants against the award of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Gurgaon which on a claim petition filed by them had granted a sum of Rs. 51840/-as compensation alongwith interest at the rate of 6% per annum from the date of filing of the claim petition.

The challenge to the award is that the dependency of the claimants on the deceased has not been properly calculated and the Court should have applied a higher multiplier in the matter.

In this case the income of the deceased has been proved to be Rs. 1216/- per month, out of which the Tribunal deducted Rs. 400/- per month on account of his own expenses and further deducted Rs. 210/- on account of pension of the widow and applied a multiplier of 8.

On consideration of the matter, I am of the firm view that the approach of the Tribunal in deducting the sum of Rs. 210/- on account of pension is not justifiable.

A full Bench of this Court in Lachhman Singh and Ors. v. Gurmit Kaur and Ors. (1979) 81 PLR 1, has held that for the purpose of calculating the just compensation, annual dependency of the dependants should be determined in terms of the annual loss accruing to them due to the abrupt termination of life. For the purpose, annual earning of the deceased at the time of the accident and the amount out of the same which he was spending for the maintenance of the dependants will be the determining factor.

It has been held repeatedly that the pension which is being paid to the widow is not to be deducted from the salary. In this view of the matter, the total dependency of the claimants on the deceased would be Rs. 816/- per month. The annual dependency comes to Rs. 9,792/- and by applying the multiplier of 8, the total amount of compensation to which the appellants are held entitled to, comes to Rs. 78,336/-. The Claimants will also be entitled to interest at the rate of 12% from the date of filing of the claim petition. The amount of compensation already awarded is to be adjusted.

Vide separate judgment of even date recorded in FAO 20 of 1983, Dalip Singh v. Smt. Krishna Kinra, (Since reported as (1994)107 PLR 579. - Editor) Dalip Singh and Dinesh Kumar have been absolved of the liability to pay compensation. The Insurance Company and the owner of the truck are held liable to pay the compensation jointly and severally. The amount of compensation shall be shared in the manner indicated below:-

Names of claimants. 1. Smt. Krishna Kinra (widow) Rs. 58,336/- 2. Ajay Kumar (son) Rs. 10,100/- 3. Neeraj Kumari (daugther) Rs. 10,000/- of Ashwani Kumar Kinra (deceased). The Tribunal had rightly not awarded any compensation to Vijay Kumar claimant.

The appeal is accordingly allowed to the extent indicated above. No costs.