IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.7269 of 2011 DATE OF DECISION: April 30,2013 Birma Devi …….Appellants versus Gurmeet Singh and others ……Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE DAYA CHAUDHARY Present: Mr.Dheeraj Narula, Advocate for the appellants. Mr.Pradeep Virk, DAG, Haryana. DAYA CHAUDHARY, J. The claimants have filed the present appeal for modification of award dated 30.7.2011 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Sirsa vide which they have been granted compensation to the tune of Rs.3,70,900/- along with interest at the rate of 7.5% per annum from the date of filing the claim petition till realisation of entire awarded amount to be paid by the respondents jointly and severally. Briefly, the facts of the case are that on 26.5.2009, one of the claimants, namely, Atalveer along with his father Jaswant Singh (deceased) boarded bus from bus stand Odhan for Dabawali which was being driven in a rash and negligent manner. On reaching bus stand Khuiyan Malkana, the bus turned turtle and caused the accident. Jaswant Singh, FAO No.7269 of 2011 deceased, sustained serious and multiple injuries on back side of his neck, forehead and other parts of the body. He was brought to General Hospital, Dabawali from where he was referred to General Hospital, Sirsa and then to Dr.R.K.Jain, Hospital, Sirsa. His condition remained critical and thereafter he was brought to Survodya Multi Speciality Hospital, Hisar and ultimately he died on 28.5.2009. The matter was reported to the police and on the basis of that, an FIR No.106 dated 26.5.2009 under Sections 279,337,338 and 304-A IPC was registered at Police Station Sadar Dabawali. The claim petition was filed by widow and son of the deceased which was allowed by learned Tribunal and an amount of Rs.3,70,900/- was awarded along with interest. The present appeal has been filed for enhancement of the amount of compensation only on the ground that the deceased was of 55 years of age and multiplier of nine has been applied, wherein in view of ratio of judgment rendered in Sarla Verma(Smt.) and others v. Delhi Transport Corporation and another (2009) 6 Supreme Court Cases 121, the multiplier of 11 should have been applied Learned counsel for the State has not disputed the submission made by learned counsel for the appellants with regard to multiplier of 11. 2 FAO No.7269 of 2011 Heard arguments of learned counsel for the parties and have also perused the impugned award as well as other documents on the filed. The amount of compensation has been assessed on the basis of multiplier of 9, whereas, admittedly, the multiplier of 11 should have been applied as the age of the deceased was 55 years at the time of accident. In view of the facts and submissions made by learned counsel for the parties, the present appeal is partly allowed. The appellants are entitled to compensation of Rs.3,52,044 (Rs.32004 dependency x 11 multiplier) besides other amount of compensation awarded by the Tribunal under various heads. Thus, in total the claimants are entitled to Rs.4,34,908/-. The proportionate of the disbursement of compensation amount would be the same as adopted by the Tribunal. The enhanced compensation amount would also carry interest at the rate of 7.5% per annum from the date of filing of the claim petition till its actual realisation. Other conditions imposed by the Tribunal shall remain intact. April 30,2013 (Daya Chaudhary) KD Judge 3