IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI MAC Add. No. 216/2010 Date of Decision: August 30. 2Q1Q ORIENTALINSURANCECO. LTD Appellants through Mr^ L KTyagi, Advocate versus PARVEEN BEGUM AND ORS Respondents d through Mr. Amitabhjha, Advocate for respondents No.l to 3. Mr. Daljeet Dhiman with Mr. Ajay Kumar Advocate for respondents No.4 to 7. CORAM: HON'BLE MISS JUSTICE REKHA SHARMA 1. Whether the reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the reporter or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the'Digest'? REKHA SHARMA. I. (ORAL) The appellant, namely, the Oriental Insurance Company Limited has preferred the present appeal against the impugned award dated < January 29, 2010 on the ground that even though, the claimants failed to prove on record the income of the deceased, the learned Claims Tribunal proceeded on the assumption that since the deceased was a driver, he must have been earning ? 8,000/- per month. It is submitted by learned counsel for the appellant that it is well-settled that in a case where the claimants are unable to establish by cogent evidence the income of a deceased, minimum wages are MACANo.216/2010 Page 1 of 3 V 3 Digitally Signed By:AMULYA Certify that the digital file and physical file have been compared and the digital data is as per the physical file and no page is missing. Signature Not Verified supposed to be taken as the basis of the income for calculatingthe compensationpayable to the dependents.Here, in the presentcase, the deceased was a driver. Hence, as per the counsel, the minimum wages payableto a skilled workerat the time of the accidentought to have been taken as the income of the deceased. The learned counsel for the claimants does not dispute the aforementioned submission of the learned counsel for the Insurance Company. He also does not dispute that if the minimum wages of a skilled worker which were ? 4,057/- on the date of the accident are taken as the basis of the income of the deceased and 50% to the same is added on account of rise in price index due to inflation, the income of the deceased for the purpose of calculatingthe dependency would work out to ? 6,085/-per month. It is assumed that 1/3'^'^ of the income as assessed above, the deceased would have spent upon himself leaving a balance of t 4,057/-. This thus is taken to be the monthly dependency of the ^ claimants upon the deceased. The same on being multiplied by 12 gives us the annual dependency and on being further multiplied by the multiplier of 15 gives us the total compensation oft 7,30,260/- payable to the claimants. To this figure is added ^ 25,000/- towards loss of love and affection, ? 10,000/- towards loss to estate, ? 10,000/- towards loss to consortium and ? 5,000/- towards funeral expenses. The total comes to ? 7,80,260/-. For what has been noticed above, the claimants are held entitled to the aforesaid sum of ? 7,80,260/- along with interest @ 7.5% per annum. The Insurance Company has deposited the amount with the MACANo.216/2010 Page 2 of 3 UCO Bank, Delhi High Court Branch in terms of the award of the Tribunal. Since the amountofcompensationhas been reduced by this Court, the balance which has been deposited over and above what has been awarded now shall be refunded to the appellant in addition to ? 25,000/- which is the statutory amount deposited as a pre-condition to the hearing of the appeal. Out of the awarded amount, Rs. ? 2 lacs shall be paid to the widow of the deceased along with interest thereon by way of a cross-cheque in her name and the balance shall be equally deposited in the name of the minor children of the deceased with the UCO Bank, Delhi High Court Branch in fixed deposit for a period of 10 years. The interest that will accrue on the FDR shall be paid to the widow for the upbringing and welfare of the children. The appeal is disposed of. REKHA^RARMA,J. AUGUST 30, 2010 PC. MACANo.216/2010 Page 3 of 3