FAO No. 103 of 1995 -1- THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No. 103 of 1995 Date of Decision : March 02, 2010 Harminder Kaur and others ....Appellants Versus The General Manager, Jammu and Kashmir State Transport Corporation, Jammu and Others. .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE T.P.S. MANN Present : Mr. Manish Gupta Advocate for the appellants. Mr Neeraj Khanna, Advocate for Mr Pradeep Bedi, Advocate for respondent No.3. T.P.S. MANN, J. (Oral): By way of the present appeal filed by the claimants under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, they have challenged the award passed by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Ropar on 4.11.1993, to the extent of granting them inadequate compensation, on account of the death of Bhagat Singh in a road accident. Though according to the claimants, the deceased was earning Rs.3,000/- per month, yet after going through the evidence and taking into consideration the last pay certificate Ex.A-1, wherein the total salary of the deceased was mentioned as Rs.2,264/- per month, the learned Tribunal came FAO No. 103 of 1995 -2- to the conclusion that the deceased who was 27 years of age and employed with the Punjab Police as a constable, was earning Rs.2,264/- per month. The deceased left behind his widow Harminder Kaur, three minor children, including one who was born after his death and his widowed mother Gurdial Kaur. It came in the statement of the widow of the deceased that her mother-in-law i.e. mother of the deceased was 65 years of age. Accordingly, the learned Tribunal came to the conclusion that the deceased must be contributing Rs.1,500/- per month to the claimants, out of his monthly salary of Rs.2,264/- and as a result, the annual dependency came to be Rs.18,000/-. The learned Tribunal then applied the multiplier of 16 so as to award an amount of Rs.2,88,000/- as compensation. After going through the evidence, I find that the monthly income of Rs.2,264/- had been rightly assessed by the learned Tribunal and so also the dependency of Rs.1,500/- per month. However, keeping in view the fact that the deceased was only 27 years of age at the time of the accident, the multiplier of '18' ought to have been applied instead of '16. Alongwith the compensation to be so assessed for being awarded to the appellants on account of the death of Bhagat Singh, his widow Harminder Kaur was entitled to receive an amount of Rs.5,000/- towards loss of consortium and all the claimants were also entitled to receive an amount of Rs. 2,000/- towards the funeral expenses. Therefore, the claimants would be entitled to receive an amount of Rs.3,24,000/- (1,500 x 12 x 18) as compensation, Rs.5,000/- towards loss of consortium and Rs.2,000/- towards funeral expenses, i.e. total amount of compensation of Rs.3,31,000/-. Resultantly, the compensation amount is enhanced from FAO No. 103 of 1995 -3- Rs.2,88,000/- to 3,31,000/-. All the respondents shall be liable to pay the amount of compensation jointly and severally. The claimants would also be entitled to interest on the enhanced amount of compensation at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of filing of the claim petition till the actual payment. The entire enhanced amount of compensation shall be paid to Harminder Kaur-appellant only. The appeal is, accordingly, disposed of. ( T.P.S. MANN ) March 02, 2010 JUDGE Pds