I Aggeilantsl 1. - 3 App‘aicants HIGH COURT OF CHHATT!SGARH AT BILASPUR DlVlSlON BENCH CORAM: HON’BLE SHRI RAJEEV GUPTA, CJ. HON’BLE SHRI SUNSL KUMAR SINHA, J. Misc. Anheai Nu. 423 or 2002 Kirtan Bai, aged ‘37 years, WJO Nanhe La! Devangan, R/o Jaijaipur, Distt. Champa Janjgir (C.G.) 2. Arun La! Devangan aged 20 years S/o late Nanhe Lai Devangan, R/o Jaijaipur distt. Champa Janjgir (C.G.) VERSUS Shatrughan Lal Chandra aged 32 years, S/o Awadh Ram Chandra R/o Aarsiya P.O. & Tahsi‘ — Jaijaipur Distt. Champa—Jang. (0.6.) .Ramesh Kumar aged 4G years R/o Dewarghata PO. & Tahsil Jaijaipur, Distt. Champa Jang. The New India insurance Company Ltd. Branch Office — Rajendra Nagar, Chauk, Bilaspur, Through Branch Manager. Pawan Kumar Agrawai, aged 37 years, SXO Sanehi Ram Agrawal R/o Main Road Baraduwar, Tahsii Sakti Resnondents 1 . Non—appiicants Distt. Champa Janjgir (C.G.) Misc. Aggeai under Section 173 of Motor Vehicles Act Shri Anurag Dayai Shrivastava, counsel for the ' appeiiants. Shri Shailendra Sharma, counsel for respondent No.3. é Present : ORDER (215‘ octaher. 2mg} h). The following order of the Court was pa$sed by Rajeev Gupta, C.J. This is cllaimants’ appeal for enhancement of the : compensation awarded by the Additional Motor ACcident Claims l 1' Tribunal; Sakti, district Bilaspur (for short; ‘the Tribunal’) vide award i dated 01 .022002, passed in Claim Case No.14 of 2000. l ' i l 2): As against the compensation of Rs.15,70,000!— claimed by i l ‘s f‘, ' i ‘ the appellants/ claimants, unfortunate widow and son’of deceased V Nanhe Lal Devangian, by filing a claim petition under Section 166 of I the Motor Vehicles Act, for his death in the motor accident on 03.02.2000 on account of the iniuries sustained by him in the motor J accident on 06.01.2000, the Tribunal awarded a total sum of Rs.74,800/— as compensation along with interest @ 9% per annum from the date of filing of the claim petition till the date of actual payment. 3) The Tribunal on a close scrutiny of the entire evidence led before it held that deceased Nanhe Lal Devangan died on 03.02.2000 on account of the injuries sustained by him in the motor accident on 06.01.2000; the accident occurred due to rash and I negligent act of the conductor/ cleaner of the offending vehicle Bus bearing registration No.-MIL‘8520; as the above offendtng vehicle Bus, on the date of the accident was insured with the New lndia insurance Company Limited, the insurance Company was liable to pay compensation to the claimants. x i 4) As the respondents have not med any appeal against the i _ . §award, the above findings recorded by the Tribunal have now gattainedfihaiity. “ p 7 i5) The Tribunal assessed the income of the deceased at l liRs.40/- per day and Rs.1,040!- per month assuming that he was ggetting work only for 26 days in 1a month. By deducting Rs.500/— I towards the personal expenses of the deceased, the claimants’ i V ‘ gdependency was assessed at Rs.540/- per month and Rs.6,480/- l éper’an’num. By multiplying the annual dependency of Rs.6,480/— iwtth the multiplier of 1i), the compensation was worked out to Rs.64;800l—. By awarding further sum of Rs.10,000l— under other heads, the Tribunal awarded a total sum of Rs.74,800/— as compensation to the claimants for the death of deceased Nanhe La‘l Devangan in the accident arising out of the use of the offending vehicle Bus. The Tribunal further directed payment of interest on the above amount of compensation of Rs.74,8001— @ 9% per annum from the date of filing of the claim petition till the date of actual payment. 6) Shrl Anurag Dayal Shrivastava, learned counsel for he appeliants submitted that the Tribunal has erred in not accepting \ the claimants’ evidence about the income of the deceased and in assessrng his income at Rs1 040/- per month only, in deducting more than 1/3r" of the Income of the deceased towards his personal expenses; in selecting the lower multiplier of 10; and in awarding low compensation cf Rs.74,800/—>only. i r i i t ‘ I @ 7) Shri Shailendra Sharma, learned counsei for {espondent No.3 the New India Insurance Company Limited, on the other hand, t sfupportedthe award and contended that as the deceased :Nas not i h‘avivng any regutar income, the compensation of Rs.74,800/- a‘ arded by the Tribunal is just and proper compensation in the f cts and circumstances of the present case. 8"W i pentiOn to be awarded by the ourts/ribunal houid be just comsa CTs s a c nd proper compensation in the facts and circumstanes of the s. It shoul either be a meager amount'of compensation, nor cae d n a oa Bnnza. S Now e shall'exaine as to wheter the comensation of D w m h p I,800/— awarded by‘ the Tribunal is just and proper ?s74 ompensatron the facts and circumstances of he present case. c‘ in t ) True, te claimants pleaded that deceased Nanhe Lal 10 h ngan se to en Rs.100f- e day as Coolie! Klsi, the eva ud ar pr haa r of th Bus in hs ritten atnt categoricly leaded that wne e i w steme al p nly a sum f Rs.1,00/— per month was being pd salar to o o 2 ai as y eed s s and case Nanhe Lal Devangan. In this tate of pleading e we t d y pr l n vidence, do no fin an fault in the apoach of the Tribuna i ‘ 'cla eve a co th iscarding the imants’ idnce bout the inme of e, cased and assing his nco on its own estimat at dee in sse ime e . ,040i per month. s1 — 1) Nevertheles the .Tribunal has certainly fallen into o in ecting ore than 1/3” of the income the deceased owards I I m-——— In a motor accident claim case, what is important is that, the I I I r i i I 3 s, errr ddu m of t ‘ his personal expenses. !n our opinion, the usual 1/3“ of the income of the deceased ought to have been deducted towards his personal expenses. We, therefore, assess the ctaimants’ dependency at Rs.700/— per month by deducting Rs.340i— per month towards the persona! expenses of the deceased. The claimants” annual dependency, therefore, is assessed at Rs.8,400/- per annum. V1§) Considering that deceased Nanhe Lal Devangan was shown to be 39 years of age in his postmortem report and the widow of the deceased Kirtan B‘ai was shown to be 37 years of age in the claim petition, we are of the opinion that multiplier of 15 would be appropriate in the present case in view of the‘recent dictum of the Apex Court in the case of Sarla Verma (Smt) and Others Versus Delhi Transport Corporation and another, reported in (2009) 6 SCC 121, wherein multiplier of 15 has been prescribed for the age group between 36—40 years. 13) By multiplying the annual dependency of Rs.8,400/— with the multiplier of 15, the compensation works out to Rs.1 ,26,000/—. By adding further sum of Rs.10,000/— awarded by the Tribunal under other heads, the claimants become entitled to receive a total sum of Rs.1 ,36,000/— as compensation for the death of deceased Nanhe Lal Devangan in the accident arising out of the Use of the offending vehicle Bus. 14) Learned counsel for the parties submitted that with a view to avoid any possible dispute between the parties about the period for wich te clmants are entitld t receive interest on the enhanced i 1 arot of comensation the amount of interest on the enhanced hun p, aront f consai be quantified in his appeal itself. 1 Consirig all the releat asets of the matter, including th delay isposal o the claim petiti the present appeal; l ad the fact that the lunce Company aloe s not to be blamed fi t entire dea in the matter, we quantif amount of interest " J‘ ori te enhaed mount of ompensation of Rs.61,200/- at .600l- 1) For the foregoing reaso the appeal fed by the appellants! cl ins for enhancent of the mpention is allowed in part. 'Te omensation of R 7 00l— awarded by the Tribunal is erianced to Rs 1 OO/- fth quaned amount of Interest s.6,8G- on the enhanced amount of compensation of 200/ 61 - 1 Respnden .3 he New lndia insurance Company Limited ) ot No t anted hree mon me for depong the total sum of is r t ths ti srti 00/- (Rs.61,200/— towards enhanced amount of i cmpensan + 00l- towars quan amount of interest l i t ncern ls Tnal 1 No order as to osts. ) i c as 80 otio Rs 6 8 d tified o h ace amo o m n te enhnd unt f copensation of Rs.61,200/-) before he conig Caim ribu W . d/- ; " , i T S CHIEF JUSTICE A //M,.s h h ai e o hu o mpeton may t 5) den vn pc e in d f on and n nsra n i l ot he ly y the i i h nc a c Rls,8. % ns, il g amat em cosa h cp s 4 8 jh 36 O wrth urer tifi l RO/ s