FAO NO.2165 OF 2007 :1: IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. DATE OF DECISION: 7.8.2008 Lilu Ram etc. ...Appellants VERSUS Bharat Singh etc. …Respondents CORAM HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE PERMOD KOHLI PRESENT: Mr.Sanjiv Gupta, Advocate for appellants Mr.Anil Malik, Advocate for respondents no.1 & 2 Mr.Vivek Singal, Advocate for respondent no.3 Permod Kohli, J. This is claimants' appeal for enhancement of the amount of compensation. Claimants are father and mother of Sandeep aged 6 years who died in the vehicular accident. Even according to the post-mortem report, his age has been reported as 6/7 years. The Tribunal has awarded Rs.80,000/- as compensation including no fault liability. Facts are not disputed. The deceased was a child and was not earning. Learned counsel for the Insurance Company has referred to the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Kaushlya Devi v. Karan Arora and others, 2007 ACJ 1870. In FAO NO.2165 OF 2007 :2: this case, the deceased was aged 14 years. He was non-earning. The Tribunal awarded an amount of Rs.1.00 lac. The High Court affirmed the award and the same has been upheld by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Learned counsel for the Insurance Company has cited another judgment in the case of Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Syed Ibrahim and others, 2007 ACJ 2816. In this case, a boy aged 7 years died in the vehicular accident. The Tribunal awarded an amount of Rs.51500/-. In an appeal before the High Court the award was enhanced to Rs.1,52,000/-. However, the Hon'ble Apex Court set aside the award of the High Court and maintained that of the Tribunal. To the contrary, learned counsel appearing for the claimants has relied upon a judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Lata Wadhwa v. State of Bihar, 2001(4) RCR (Civil) SC 673. In this case, a large number of people died in devastating fire at Jamshed Pur including 26 children. The writ petition was filed before the Hon'ble Supreme Court invoking Article 32 of the Constitution of India. The Hon'ble Supreme Court, applying the principles of fatal accidents, awarded an amount of Rs.1,50,000/- + Rs.50,000/- for the death of child between 10 to 15 years. Relying upon the aforesaid judgment, a Division Bench of this Court in the case of Piara Singh and others vs. Satpal Kumar and others, 2006 (4) RCR (Civil) 546 awarded an amount of Rs.1.50 lacs for the death of a child of seven years old. In the aforesaid case, taking the notional income at Rs.15,000/- and applying the multiplier of 15, following observations have been FAO NO.2165 OF 2007 :3: made:- “8.In the death case of Sukhdeep Singh, a child of 7 years, his parents, namely, Bhagwant Singh (father) and Karamjit Kaur (mother), are the claimants. It appears that the deceased was studying in Class II in Vishkarma Adarsh School, Khizrabad, Kharar (Ropar) and there was no rebuttal of the evidence regarding the age of the deceased. The Tribunal, after taking into consideration, the young age group of the parents and that of the deceased child has fixed the notional income at Rs.15,000/- per annum and has deducted 1/3rd share as expenses on himself. Thus, the dependency amount has been assessed at Rs.10,000/- per annum and the multiplier of 15 has been applied. Thus, the total amount of compensation has been worked out to Rs.1,50,000/-. In the case of Lata Wadhwa (supra), the assessment of the compensation amount in the case of children between the age group of 5-10 has been discussed and the dependency amount of Rs.1,50,000/- per child was fixed by applying the multiplier of 15. Thus, by applying the ratio of the judgment and the calculation, we grant the same amount of Rs.1,50,000/-.” FAO NO.2165 OF 2007 :4: Applying the aforesaid ratio, I enhance the compensation amount from Rs.80,000/- to Rs.1,50,000/-. The claimants shall be entitled to interest on the enhanced amount. Let the amount of compensation be paid to the claimants within a period of three months from today. Disposed of. (PERMOD KOHLI) JUDGE 07.8.2008 MFK FAO NO.2165 OF 2007 :5: