&) HIGH COURT OF CHHATJ1SGARH AT BSLASPUR HON'BLE SHRI RAJEEV GUPTA, C.J. HON'BLE SHR! KAR,J Claimants ^ Misc Appeal (C) No.121S of 2010 1 Smt Pushpa Bai, w/o Homan Lal Yadav, aged about 32 years 2 Deepak, s/o Homan Lal Yadav; aged about15 years 3 Pushkar, s/o Homan Lal Yadav, aged about12 years 4 Ku Tulsi, d/o Homan Lal Yadav, aged about1O years Appellant No.2 to 4 are minors through natural guardian mother Smt Pushpa Bai, w/o Homan Lal Yadav 5 Smt Sonbai, w/o Motilal Yadav, aged about 54 years 6 MQtitai, s/o Late Shri Budhram Yadav, aged about 56 years Ail are by Caste Yadav, r/o village - Korra, Tahsil - Kurud, Distt Dhamtari Ramkumar, s/o Mohan Lal Sahu, R/o Baster Road Dhamtari Tahsil and Distt Dhamtari (CG) Banshi Lal Sahu, s/o Harish Sahu, r/o Statin para Dhamtari, Tahsil and Distt Dhamtari (CG) Branch Manaaer, the National Insurance Company Ltd., GE Road, Raipur, Tahsil and Distt Raipur (CG) •MdMWSBUBBKtia'lirBagKK^KET; MACNo.1215 of 2010 iisceilaneous Appeal under Section 173 of MuSor VehlcSes Act Present : Shri Sunil Sahu, counselfortheappellants. Shri Q Aziz and Shri GVK Rao, counsel for respondent No.3. (09th, The following order of the Court was Rajeev Gupta, C.J. This is claimants' appeal for enhancement of the compensation awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Dhamtari (for short 'the Tribunal') vide award dated 23.09.2010, passed in Claim Case No.78/2010. 2) As against the compensation of Rs.21,00,000/-, claimed by the appellants/claimants, unfortunate widow, minor children and parents of deceased Homan Lal Yadav by filing a claim petition under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, for his death in the motor accident on 02.05.2008, the Tribunai awarded a total sum of Rs.2,92,000/- as compensation a!ong with interest @ 6% per annum from the date of fliing of the claim petition till the date of actual payment. 3) The Tribunal on a close scrutiny of the entire evidence led before it held that deceased Homan Lal Yadav died on account of the injuries sustained by him in the motor accident on 02.05.2008; the accident occurred due to rash and negligent driving of the driver ; 7^.S;^^.^y^^M.:^S^EJ^^°"^^^s^^'s^^£?i^^:^:-.^ ':_^-.-^^^.^..;^'.:. :...- NIACNo.1215 of 2010 of the offending vehicle Metador bearing registration No.CG-05 /A 7279; as the above offending vehicle Metador on the date of the accident was insured with the National Insurance Company Limited, and the Insurance Company could not establish any breach of the policy conditions, the Insurance Company was liable to pay compensation to the claimants. 4) As the respondents have not filed any appeal against the award, the above finding recorded by the Tribunal have now attained finalitv. 5) The Tribunal assessed the income of the deceased at Rs.100/- per day and Rs.3,000/- per month. By deducting 1/3rd of Rs.3,000/- towards personal expenses of the deceased, the claimant's dependency was assessed at Rs.2,000/- per month and Rs.24,000/- per annum. By multiplying the annual dependency of Rs.24,000/- with the multiplier of 12, the compensation was worked out to Rs.2,88,000/-. By awarding further sum of Rs.2,000/- towards funeral expenses and Rs.2,000/- for loss of consortium to the widow, the Tribunal awarded- a tota! sum of Rs.2,92,000/- as compensation to the claimants for the death of deceased Homan Lal Yadav in the motor accident. The Tribunal further directed payment of interest on the above amount of compensation of Rs.2,92,000/- @ 6% per annum from the date of fiiing ofthe claim petition till ths date ofactual payment. 6) Shri Sunil Sahu, learned counsel for the appellants submitted that though the Tribunal has rightly assessed the income of the deceased at Rs.100/- per day and Rs.3,000/- per month; and the ji^.^i.a^^Ei^^dB^^^^SsS.^c^m —n'«—-„.-»>._ 1:; ., — 3 .^ ^=s3?Ad^nEE^ti)tera^^zriKw!ffi^'-3<=h£^ffi^n^-K5S3&^^' MACNo.1215 of 2010 claimants' dependency at Rs.2,000/- per month and Rs.24,000/- per annum, the Tribunal has erred in selecting the lower multiplier of 12; in awarding only Rs.4,000/- under other heads; and in awarding a total sum of Rs.2,92,000/- only as compensation to the claimants. 7) Shri Q Aziz and Shri GVK Rao, learned counsel for respondent No.3 the National Insurance Company Limited, the insurer of the offending vehicle Metador on the other hand supported the award and contended that the compensation of Rs.2,92,000/- awarded by the Tribunal is just and proper compensation in the facts and circumstances of the present case. 8) In a motor accident clalm case what is important is that the compensation to be awarded by the Courts / Tribunais should be just and proper compensation in the facts and circumstances of the case. It should neither be a meager amount of compensation, nor abonanza. 9) Now, we shall examine as to whether the compensation of Rs.2,92,000/- awarded by the Tribunat B just and proper compensation in the facts and circumstances of the present case. 10) Though iearned counsel for the appellants has not challenged the assessment of the income of the deceased by the Tribunal at Rs.100/- per day and Rs.3,000/- per month and the claimants' dependency at Rs.2,000/- per month and Rs.24,000/- per annum, for our satisfaction, we have examined the entire material available on record and we are satisfied that the Tribunal ^^ ^••^i^^^@£^;&t^^^^^^S^^;^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^»^aSE8S^^3»»'-i^^SC S^Bi»:^Sy--l 7.fv"n^i~sy'y^!r.^/"'^±''s^v:^~ff^^ssfl-^:3fI"r1<KLV^ MACNo.1215 of 2010 has rightly assessed the income of the deceased and the claimants' dependency. 11) Nevertheless, the multiplier of 12 selected by the Tribunal is certainly on the lower side and requires reconsideration. 12) Deceased Homan Lal Yadav was shown to be 35 years of age in his postmortem report and his widow appellant No.1 Smt Pushpa Bai was shown to be 32 years of age in the claim petition. In our considered opinion, multiplier of 16 would be appropriate in the present case in view of the dictum of the Apex Court in the case of Sarla Verma (Smt) and others Versus Delhi Transport Corporation and another reported in (2009) 6 Supreme Court Cases 121, wherein multiplier of 16 has been prescribed for the age group between 31 -35 years. 13) By multiplying the annual dependency of Rs.24,000/- with the multiplier of 16, the compensation works out to Rs.3,84,000/-. The claimants are further entitled to receive Rs.5,000/- towards funeral expenses; Rs.5,000/- towards loss of consortium to the widow; and Rs.5,000/- for ioss of estate. The claimants, tbus, become entitled to receive a total sum of Rs.3,99,000/- as compensation for the death of deceased Homan Lal Yadav in the motor accident. 1'4), Learned counsel for the parties submitted that with a view to avoid any possible dispute between the parties about the period for which the claimants are entitled to receive interest on the enhanced amount of compensation, the amount of interest on the enhanced amount ofcompensation may be quantified in Shis appeal itself. MACNo.1215 of 2010 padma 15) Considering all the relevant aspects of the matter including the delay in disposal of the claim petition and the present appeal and the fact that the Insurance Company alone is not to be blamed for the entire delay in the matter, we quantlfy the amount of interest on the enhanced amount of compensation of Rs.1,07,000/- at Rs.13,000/-. 16) For the foregoing reasons, the appeal filed by the appeilants/claimants for enhancement of the , compensation is allowed in part. The compensation of Rs.2,92,000/- awarded by the Tribunal is enhanced to Rs.3,99,000/- with further quantified amount of interest of Rs.13,000/- on the enhanced amount of compensation of Rs.1,07,000/-. 17) Respondent No.3 the National Insurance Company Limited is granted three months' time for depositing the total sum of Rs,1,20,000/- (Rs.1,07,000/- towards enhanced amount of compensation + Rs.13,000/- towards quantified amount of interest on the enhanced amount of compensation of Rs.1,07,000/-) before the concerning Claims Tribunal. . 18) No order as to costs. ___ Sd/- Chief Justice Sd/- R.N. Chandrakar Judge ^