FAO No.2359 of 1999 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.2359 of 1999 DATE OF DECISION: February 24, 2011 SALVINDER KAUR AND OTHERS ...APPELLANTS VERSUS BAGICHA SINGH AND ANOTHER ...RESPONDENTS CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN. 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgement? No 2. To be referred to the reporters or not? No 3. Whether the judgement should be reported in the digest? No ---- PRESENT: MR. K.L. DHAWAN, ADVOCATE FOR THE APPELLANTS. NONE FOR THE RESPONDENTS. K.KANNAN, J.(ORAL) 1. The appeal is against dismissal of the petition for compensation. The death is said to have been taken place at a time when the deceased, a male aged 35, was coming out of the petrol pump after filling up his scooter with petrol. The deceased came on the main road and got hit by a bus belonging to Punjab Roadways, driven by one Bagicha Singh. The evidence of the driver was that he saw the deceased, coming on to the road just 5 or 6 feet before the place of accident. It was evidently a case of the deceased being negligent in coming to the road without minding the on-going traffic on the main way. Learned counsel argues that the driver's evidence that he had seen the deceased coming on the scooter just 6 or 7 feet before, would itself show that if the driver had been careful, he could have avoided the accident. This I would take to be an issue of contributory negligence and I will not completely exclude the the finding of FAO No.2359 of 1999 -2- some part of negligence on the driver of the Punjab Roadways. I will, therefore, apportion a larger responsibility for the accident on the deceased and apportion the same as 60:40 between the scooterist and the driver of the bus. 2. The deceased was said to be an agriculturist owning 5 killas of land and the evidence by the widow was that he was also doing business in sale of timber and earning `10,000/- per month. For an agriculturist owning lands, the estate will remain and I would quantify the value of the managerial skills of lands at `3000/- and make a further addition of `1000/- for what he would have lost as a small time dealer in timber. I would take the average income at `4000/- and assess the compensation on the scales laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Sarla Verma vs. DTC, reported as 2009 6 SCC 121. The amount of compensation is tabulated below:- Fatal Accidents Age: 35 Occupation Agriculturist, Timber dealer Claimants Wife, 3 minor children Heads of Claim Tribunal High Court Sr.No. Amount ` Amount ` 1. Annual Income 4000 2. Add % of increase 30%/50% Nil 3. Deduction (1/2,1/3, 1/4, 1/5) 1/4 4. Multiplicand 3000 x 12 5. Multiplier 16 6. Loss of Dependence 5,76,000 7. Medical Expenses - 8. Loss of Consortium + loss of love and affection 12,500 9. Loss to Estate 2500 10. Funeral Expenses 2500 Total 5,93,500/- FAO No.2359 of 1999 -3- 3. The amount shall stand abated to the extent of 60% for the accident to which the deceased had contributed and the amount shall, therefore, be `2,37,400/-. The said amount of compensation shall attract interest @ 7.5% from the date of petition till the date of payment. It shall be distributed between the widow and children equally. 4. The liability shall be on the respondents jointly and severally. 5. The appeal is disposed of. February 24, 2011 (K.KANNAN) Gulati JUDGE