FAO No.450 of 1994 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.450 of 1994 DATE OF DECISION: January 27, 2011 MISS NANDINI MINOR AND OTHERS ...APPELLANTS VERSUS AMRIK SINGH AND OTHERS ...RESPONDENTS CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN. 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgement. Yes 2. To be referred to the reporters or not? Yes 3. Whether the judgement should be reported in the digest? Yes ---- PRESENT: MR. ASHIT MALIK, ADVOCATE FOR THE APPELLANTS. NONE FOR RESPONDENTS NO.1 AND 2. MR. INDERJIT SHARMA, ADVOCATE AND MR. PARDEEP BEDI, ADVOCATE FOR RESONDENT NO.3. K.KANNAN, J.(ORAL) 1. The appeal is for enhancement of compensation for a claim that was answered for death of a person who was DIG of Police and IPS Officer. He was earning `5060/- at the time of his death on 8.8.1990 and the case was prosecuted by his three sons and grandchild described as an adopted daughter. In proof to such adoption, a document of adoption was filed which was not accepted by the Tribunal since it has not been registered. The adoption could be either in the Shastric form that 'giving and taking', being the essential features, by the natural parents to the adoptive parents or it could be brought about through a document in writing and registered in the manner provided under the Hindu Adoption & Maintenance Act, 1956. FAO No.450 of 1994 -2- An unregistered document, when there was an admission that there was no Shastric form of adoption, could not have lent support to the contention that there was a valid adoption. The Tribunal was, therefore, justified in holding that the adoption had not been established. 2. The case of negligence was taken as established, but the Tribunal still granted a compensation of only `25,000/- on no-fault basis on the ground that all the sons were majors and there were no dependence on the deceased. The element of dependence is but one facet of claim before the Tribunal. There were several heads of claims which are provided for under the Motor Vehicles Acts. Loss to estate and funeral expenses also constitute important heads of claim. While loss to estate may itself be merely as token or conventional figure when the compensation is determined taking the dependence factor, it assumes significance in a case where no dependency is established. The legal heirs come by the benefit of accretions to the estate if he/she had lived. The deceased was aged 56 years at the time of his death and his salary had been `6708/- and he was also assessed to income tax at `300/- per month. I would take the salary to be `6500/- and having regard to his age and status with all the amenities to a high ranking Police Official that was possible, I would take the accretions to the estate at not less than 50% of his earning. I would, therefore, take 50% gross income minus tax as going to the estate and having regard to the fact that he was aged 56, I will adopt a multiplier of 9 and hold the extent of loss of estate as 3,45,600/-. 3. I have provided for a larger number than the number of years of service left only because that even beyond his period of retirement, a Police Official could have found adequate avenues for employment or at least FAO No.450 of 1994 -3- earned his own pension that could have left a residue for an estate to inherit. I would provide for an additional amount of `4400/- as going towards funeral expenses and take the compensation payable at `3,50,000/-. The amount in excess over what has already been awarded by the Tribunal shall attract interest @ 6% from the date of petition till the date of payment. The amount shall be distributed equally amongst all the three sons. 4. The appeal is allowed to the above extent. January 27, 2011 (K.KANNAN) Gulati JUDGE