IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH F.A.O. No. 4887 of 2004 Date of Decision : February 04, 2009 Gurvinder Kaur and others ....Appellants Versus Ram Pal and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE T.P.S. MANN Present : Mr. Sunil Panwar, Advocate for the appellants. None for respondents No. 1 and 2. Mr. Inderjit Sharma, Advocate for respondent No. 3. T.P.S. MANN, J. (Oral) Petition filed by the appellants under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 was allowed by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Patiala on July 30, 2004 and appellants were awarded an amount of Rs. 3,46,000/- as compensation. All the respondents were adjudged jointly and severally liable to pay the amount of compensation. It was directed that the payment of compensation be made within a period of two months or else the appellants would be entitled to interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of the claim petition till realisation of the amount. F.A.O. No. 4887 of 2004 - 2 - Claiming that the amount of compensation as awarded by the learned Tribunal was highly inadequate, the appellants filed the present appeal under Section 173 of the Act with a prayer for enhancement of the same. On account of the rash and negligent driving of Maruti car bearing registration No. PB-28A-9191 by Ram Pal-respondent No.1, which vehicle was owned by Rajinder Kumar-respondent No.2 and insured with National Insurance Company Limited-respondent No.3, Tejinder Pal Singh, husband of Gurvinder Kaur-appellant and father of Harleen Kaur and Ramneet Kaur-appellants, lost his life on 11.8.2002. The accident in question had taken place on 6.8.2002 at about 8/8.30 P.M. on the road leading from Sirhind to Rajpura. At that time, the deceased was driving a scooter bearing registration No. PB-11Q-4401. The deceased was 37 years of age and claimed to be running wholesale cloth shop from which he was earning Rs.12,000/- per month. The appellants had, therefore, prayed for granting them an amount of Rs. 20,00,000/- as compensation. In case, the deceased had been earning Rs.12,000/- per month from the wholesale business of cloth, he was expected to file income tax returns. No such record of income tax or the accounts books was produced by the claimants. Only PAN Card Ex.P.3 issued to the deceased had been brought on the record. The existence of PAN Card goes to show that the deceased must have been earning sufficient income F.A.O. No. 4887 of 2004 - 3 - regarding which he could be required to file income tax return but it might be that after obtaining benefits of statutory exemptions and deductions, his net income falling below the threshold level of Rs. 5,000/- every year requiring the mandatory filing of the return. Under these circumstances, this Court would be justified to hold that the deceased was having a net income of Rs. 48,000/- per year. Therefore, the finding arrived at by the learned Tribunal that the deceased was earning only Rs.36,000/- per annum cannot be sustained and, therefore, set aside. It is held that the deceased was earning Rs.48,000/- per year. As the family of the deceased consisted of his wife and two minor children, the dependency can safely be calculated as 2/3rd, i.e. Rs. 32,000/- per year. The deceased was 37 years of age as has been held by the learned Tribunal. Keeping in view the guidelines as laid down by the Second Schedule, the proper multiplier to be applied was 16 and not 14, as had been done by the learned Tribunal. Applying the multiplier as 16, the amount of compensation works out to Rs. 5,12,000/-. Apart from the amount of compensation, which had been worked out by the learned Tribunal to be paid to the claimants, an amount of Rs.5,000/- was also granted on account of expenses of medicines and treatment and Rs.5,000/- to Gurvinder Kaur as loss of consortium. Apart from the same, an amount of Rs.5,000/- can also be awarded to the F.A.O. No. 4887 of 2004 - 4 - appellants as transportation charges because the appellants lived at Patiala, whereas the deceased died at P.G.I., Chandigarh. All the three aforementioned amounts of Rs.5,000/- each, when added to the amount of compensation of Rs.5,12,000/-, an amount of Rs. 5,27,000/- is payable to the appellants as compensation. In view of the above, the amount of Rs.3,46,000/- awarded to the appellants as compensation by the learned Tribunal is enhanced to Rs.5,27,000/-. Liability to pay the enhanced amount shall also be joint and several on all the respondents. Out of the enhanced amount of compensation, i.e. Rs.1,81,000/- , amount of Rs.1,01,000/- shall be paid to Gurvinder Kaur-appellant, while both Harleen Kaur and Ramneet Kaur shall be paid an amount of Rs.40,000/- each. The respondents shall also pay interest at the enhanced amount of Rs.1,81,000/- at the rate of 7.5% per annum from the date of filing of the claim petition till realisation of the said amount. The entire amount of interest on the enhanced compensation shall, however, be paid to Gurvinder Kaur-appellant alone. Resultantly, the appeal is allowed to the extent as indicated above. No costs. ( T.P.S. MANN ) February 04, 2009 JUDGE satish