FAO NO. 4467 of 2011(O&M) 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO NO. 4467 of 2011(O&M) Date of order: 13.09.2013 Smt. Rupali Thakur and ors. ..... Appellants Versus Mohinder Singh and ors. .... Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIJENDER SINGH MALIK Present: Mr. C.L. Chaudhary, Advocate for the appellants. Mr. G.D.Gupta, Advocate for respondent No.3. **** Vijender Singh Malik, J. This is an appeal brought by the claimants for enhancement of compensation. Arjun Singh died in a road side accident that took place during the night intervening 4th and 5th of July, 2007. Smt. Rupali Thakur, wife of the deceased and others had brought a claim petition under section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 seeking compensation in a sum of `20,00,000/- on the death of said Arjun Singh. Learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Chandigarh (for short 'the Tribunal') vide award dated 02.04.2011 has allowed the claim petition in a sum of `6,43,376/-. Kumar Dinesh 2013.09.19 11:36 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document High Court,Chandigarh FAO NO. 4467 of 2011(O&M) 2 Arjun Singh was 23 years old at the time of the accident. He was working with KFC , SCO No.1-2-3, Sector 8-C, Chandigarh and was getting `4500/- per month. A sum of `20,000/- was spent on the last rites of the deceased. Claiming themselves to be dependents of the deceased, the claimants sought a sum of `20,00,000/- as compensation. The aforesaid averments of the claimants have been denied by the respondents. They have denied the averments of the claimants regarding age, occupation and income of the deceased. They have denied the claimants to deserve a sum of `20,00,000/- as compensation. Learned Tribunal took the deceased to be having an income of `4329/- per month. This amount was found from the salary certificate Ex.C-6, which was proved by Nitish Sharma, PW-2. 2/3rd of the same was taken as dependency of the claimants. Finding the monthly dependency at `2886/-, the annual dependency was found as `34,632/-. The deceased was found to have lost his life at the age of 25 years and multiplier of 18 has been selected to work out the compensation. A sum of `6,23,376/- is, thus, found to have been lost by the claimants in the death of Arjun Singh. Adding there to, a sum of `10,000/- towards transportation of dead body and last rites and `10,000/- for loss of consortium, a sum of `6,43,376/- has been assessed as compensation payable to the claimants. The only challenge to the award is towards assessment of compensation. Learned Tribunal is claimed to have not Kumar Dinesh 2013.09.19 11:36 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document High Court,Chandigarh FAO NO. 4467 of 2011(O&M) 3 increased the income of the deceased in the name of future prospects. Learned counsel for the appellants has contended that the deceased had been 25 years of age and, therefore, as per the decision of Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in Rajesh and others v. Rajbir Singh and others 2013 ACJ 1403, 50% of the income should have been added thereto in the name of future prospects. According to him, compensation should have been so assessed. Learned counsel for respondent No.3, on the other hand, has submitted that the case of the deceased does not fall in the category of the cases where income can be increased in the name of future prospects. According to him, the compensation has been rightly assessed in this case and no enhancement thereto is permissible. It is true that the concept of increase was introduced in Smt. Sarla Verma and others v. Delhi Transport Corporation and another 2009 AIR (SC) 3104 ,and the same was for the deceased who had been in permanent job and was of certain age i.e. below the age of 50 years. However, thereafter a number of decisions have come on the point and the last of them is Rajesh's case supra where in case of self employed or persons working on fixed wages also this increase is permissible. Thus, the case in hand is squarely covered by the ratio of Rajesh's case supra. When the deceased is 25 years of age, his income requires to be increased by 50% in the name of future prospects. Adding 50% of `4329/- to it and deducting 1/3rd therefrom in the name of the expenses of the deceased on himself, I again reach a sum of `4329/- as the monthly Kumar Dinesh 2013.09.19 11:36 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document High Court,Chandigarh FAO NO. 4467 of 2011(O&M) 4 dependency of the claimants. The annual dependency on multiplication of the same with 12 comes to `51,948/-. Multiplier of 18 is not questioned on either side. Adopting the said multiplier, the claimants are found to have lost a sum of `9,35,064/- in the death of Arjun Singh. Adding to it, a sum of `20,000/- as compensation under the conventional heads, I find a sum of `9,55,064/- as compensation payable to the claimants. In the result, the appeal succeeds and is allowed enhancing the compensation from `6,43,376/- to `9,55,064/- which shall be payable to the appellants by the respondents with interest under the other terms as allowed by the Tribunal. Out of the amount of compensation, a sum of `5,55,064/- shall fall to the share of appellant No.1. A sum of `3,00,000/- shall fall to the share of appellant no.2 and the remaining amount shall be shared in equal by appellants No. 3 and 4. The amount of the share of the minor appellant shall be deposited in a fixed deposit in some nationalized bank for the period till she attained the age of majority. (VIJENDER SINGH MALIK) JUDGE 13.09.2013 dinesh Kumar Dinesh 2013.09.19 11:36 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document High Court,Chandigarh