HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA M.A.CIVIL MISCELLANEOUS APPEAL No. 3748 OF 2011 . DATED 28TH DECEMBER, 2011 BETWEEN M/s. The Oriental Insurance Co.Ltd., Rep. by its Divisional Manager, Visakhapatnam/ Authorized Signatory, Regional Office, Begumpet, Hyderabad. …Appellant And Mamidisetty Varalakshmi and ors ….Respondents. HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA M.A. CIVIL MISCELLANEOUS APPEAL No. 3748 OF 2011 JUDGMENT: M/s. Oriental Insurance Company Limited has filed the present appeal impugning the Award dated 31.01.2005 passed in OP.No. 1323 of 1998 by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal-cum-V Additional District Judge, Visakhapatnam, vide which compensation of Rs.8,05,000/- with costs and interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of the petition till the date of realization was awarded in favour of the respondents/claimants. Briefly the facts of the case are that on 25.06.1998 while the deceased sitting as pillion rider, his colleague P.Vijay Kumar was driving the motor cycle bearing registration No.AP 31 F 8323 towards Sabbavaram, and while that be so, a lorry bearing No.AP 31 T 4997 belonging to the eighth respondent, being driven by its driver in rash and negligent manner with high speed dashed against the said motor cycle, as a result of which, the rider and the pillion rider succumbed to their injuries. The respondents 1 to 7/claimants filed the claim application in OP.No. 1323 of 1998 claiming compensation of Rs.5,00,000/-. In order to prove the claim, on behalf of the respondents 1 to 5/claimants, P.W.1 was examined and Exs.A.1 to 22 were got marked. On behalf of the respondents 6 and 7, RWs 1 and 2 were examined, however, no documentary evidence was adduced. On behalf of the contesting respondent, neither oral nor documentary evidence was adduced. The Tribunal upon due consideration of the evidence on record, while recording a finding that the accident occurred due to rash and negligent driving of the lorry by its driver, awarded compensation in favour of the respondents/claimants of Rs.8,05,000/- with costs and interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of the petition till the date of realization. The Tribunal while assessing the dependency, took the gross income of the deceased at Rs.6,205/- per month based on Ex.A.10. After deducting 1/3rd towards his personal expenses and applying the multiplier ‘16’ as the age of the deceased was 36 years as on the date of accident, the Tribunal awarded Rs.7,68,000/- towards dependency. In addition to the same, the Tribunal also awarded an amount of Rs.20,000/- towards loss of estate, Rs.2,000/- towards funeral expenses and Rs.15,000/- towards loss of consortium. In total, an amount of Rs.8,05,000/- with interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of petition till the date of realization was awarded. The learned Counsel for the appellant-Insurance Company submitted that as per the decision of the Supreme Court in Sarla Verma Vs. Delhi Transport Corporation {(2009) 6 SCC 121}, multiplier ‘15’ has to be applied in as much as the age of the deceased as on the date of his death was in between 36 to 40 years. He further submitted that the interest at the rate of 9% per annum is very much on the higher side and as such the interest should be between 6% and 7.5% per annum. The learned Counsel for the respondents does not dispute the proposition of law laid down by the Apex Court in Sarla Verma’s case (supra). After hearing the learned Counsel for the parties, it is clear that the death of the deceased was due to rash and negligent driving of the crime lorry by its driver. Coming to the assessment of the dependency, it is to be seen that as per Ex.A.10, the gross salary of the deceased was Rs.6,205/-. If 1/3rd thereof is deducted towards personal expenses of the deceased, it comes to Rs.4,136/-,which can be rounded off at Rs.4000/-. As per the Sarla Vermas case (Supra} the multiplier requires to be applied is ’15’ and not ‘16’ in a case where the deceased was between the age of 35 years and 40 years. As such the total dependency would be (4000 x 12 x 15) Rs.7,20,000. Apart from the same, the claimants are entitled to lump sum amount of Rs.50,000/- towards funeral expenses, loss of estate, loss of consortium etc.,. Thus, the claimants are held entitled to the compensation of Rs.7,70,000/- with interest at 7.5% per annum from the date of filing the petitioner till the date of realization. The Award of the Tribunal is accordingly modified. In the result, the Civil Miscellaneous Appeal is partly allowed to the extent indicated above. There shall be no order as to costs. -------------------------------------- JUSTICE ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA Dated 28th December, 2012. Msnro