'li L^) c^- IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BILASPUR fC.G.) M.A. (0 ^P /200t. APPELLANTS: CLAIMANTS ^- 1iR.-1 ^v^ ^' \.^ ^^ ^.\^ .<''' rS^ RESPONDENTS: NON-CLAIMANTS 1. 2. ^ 3. ^ l;. 1. Smt. Manju Mish/a W/o Kharanand Mishra, aged about 40 years 2. Kharanand Mishra S/o late Bhuttu Mishra, aged about 48 years 3. Ku. Jyoti Mishra Minor D/o Kharanand Mishra, aged about 17 years Minor appellant No. 3 through legal guardian father Kharanand Mishra appellant No. 2. All R/o Beer Savarkar Nagar Heerapur, Raipur, Tahsil and District Raipur (C.G.) Versus Umashankar Sahu S/o late DeonathSahu aged about 43 years, Occupation Truck Driver, R/o ViSlage Mahaveer Ward, Bhathapara, District Raipur (C.G.) Ashoka Transport Through : Managing Director, Ashoka Transport, New Bus Stand, Baloda Bazar, District Raipur (C.G.) The New India Insurance Company Limited, Through : Divisional Manager, Divisional Office No. 2, Bajrang Market, RDA Building, G.E. Road, Raipur (C.G.) ,,rA Miscellanceous Appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicle Act. 1994 BJGHCOURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASeyR APPELLANTS CLAI^SANTS tVS.A^ClNo.460of2009 Smt. (Vlanju Mishra & others Versus Umashankar Sahu & others. RESPONDENTS NQN-CLA!MANTS APPEAL U/S 173 OF THE IVSOTOR VEHSCLES ACT. 1994 fSinale Bench: Hon'ble Mr. N.K. Aaarwal. J.l Preserst : Shri S.C. Verma, counsel with Shri Aditya Khare, counsel for the appeiiants. None for respondents No.1 & 2. Shri Deepak Gupta, counse! for respondent No.3. (Passed on 28tn day of January, 2010) This Is ciaamants' appeal seeking enhancement of compensation against the award dated 12-12-2006 passed by VJISth Additionai Motor Accident Ciaims Tribunal (FJ.C.), Raipur (for short 'the Tribunal') in Ciaim Case No.01/2005 whereby and whereunder an amount of Rs.2,20,000/- has been awarded in favour of the appellants/claimants and against the respondent No.3 for the death of Deepak Mishra, (since deceased), aged about 22 years, in the accident. 2. The facts briefly stated are as under: On 09-02-2004, said deceased met with an aocident with truck bearing registration No. C.G. 04-A/9354 owned by respondent No.2 and belng driven by respondent No.1 resulting jn his death. 3, The appellants/daimants unfortunate mo&ier, father and minor sister ofthe deceased have preferred claim petition under Sectlon 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act (for short 'the Act') claiming Rs.85,00,000/- as compensation for the death of the deceased, in the accident 4. Learned Tribunai on ciose scrutiny of evidence led, material placed and submissions made by the parties, assessed the income of the cteceased at Rs. 15,000/- per annum by taking notiona! income as prescribed under Section 163-A of the Act; applied muitiplier of 17; deducted 1/3 of the income towards personal expenses of the deceased awarded a sum of Rs.1,70,000/- on account of toss of dependency and further awarded Rs. 50,(XX)/- on other heads and thus awarded a total sum of Rs. 2,20,000/- along with (nterest @ 7.5% per annum to the appeilants/claimants. 5. Learned counsel for the appellant would submit that since the accident is of the year 2004 and, ttierefore, the notionat income oyght to have been taken as Rs.36,000/- per annum in place of Rs.15,000/- and thus the amount of compensation requires to be enhanced. 6. Per contra, learned counsel for respondent No.3 would submit that aithough in view of Division Bench judgment of this Court in case of Duijan & Others vs. Ashok Kumar & Others, reported Jn 2009 (3) C.G.L.J. 191, since the accident took place in the year 2004, the notional income prescribed In the year 1994 as Rs.15,000/- can be taken as Rs.36,000/- in the year 2004 by considering the increase in the prices of essential commodities and cost of iiving between the year 1994 to 2004 but even then the amount awarded by the Tribunat cannot be sajd to be on lower side inasmuch as in this case, the claimants are parents and She deceased was their unmamed son. Therefore, in view of para 10 of the judgment of this Court in th©case of Dusjan & Others vs. Ashok Kumar & Others (supra), the muitipiier applied by the learned Tribunai is on higher side, because the iearned Tribunal ought to have applied the muitiplier of 10 jn place of17. 7. I have heard learned counsei for the parties, perused ttie award impugned and the records ofthe Jearned Tribunal. 8. The notional income of Rs.15,000/- per annum was prescribed in the Second Scheduie under Section 163-A of the Motor VehicJes Act, 1988 (for short 'the Act), in the year 19S4. The accident in the present case took piace in the year 2004. !f the increase jn ttie prices of essential commodities and the cost of ijving between the years 1994-2004 l.e. the year of accjdent is taken Into account, the notional income prescrsbed in the Second Schedule in the year 1^4 would certainly come to Rs.36,000/- in the year 2004. I, therefore, propose to re-compute the compensation taking the income of the deceased at Rs.36,000/- per annum. ^?^5J';:'' ^ Kvr 9. As the ciaimants are parents and sister of the deceased, and the deceased at the time of accident was unmamed; and after his marriage, his contribution to his parents and sister would have been reduced substantially, i deem it proper to apply the multiplier of 10 instead multiplier of 17 as selected by the TribunaS as observed by the Apex Court in the case of Municipal Corpof'atlon of Greater Bombay vs Laxman lyer and another, reported »n (2003) 8 SCC 731, by deducting 1/3rd from the amount yearty income of Rs.36,000/-, the yeariy dependency would come to Rs.24,000/- and by appiying the multipiier of 10, the amount of compensation and ioss of dependency at Rs.2,40,000/- by adding in it Rs.15,000/- towards other heads, the claimants would become entitte to receive a total sum of Rs.2,55,000/- as compensation for the death of deceased in the said motor accident. 10. For the foregoing reasons, the appeal filed by the appeilants/clajmants for enhancement of compensatjon is allowed jn part. The compensation of Rs.2,40.000/- is enhanced to Rs.2,55,000/-. The appellants are aiso entitled interest @ 6% per annum cn the enhanced amount of compensation from the date of application tilf its recovery. 11. Respondent No.S/the New Indja Insurance Company »sgranted three months' time for depositing the total sum of Rs.35,000/- wjth interest thereof @ 6% per annum from the date of application till jte payment before the concerning Tribunal. ~ Sd/- N.K. Agrawal Judge