1 fa355 ssp IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELATE JURISDICTION FIRST APPEAL NO.355 OF 2000 1 Aruna Bhagwant Jadhav 2 Master Vishal Bhagwant Jadhav a minor by his guardian natural mother Smt.Aruna Bhagwant Jadhav ...Appellants vs. 1 Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation 2 The director of Insurance Co. 3 Babaji Vithal Thube 4 Arun Shankarrao Latnekar 5 United India Insurance Co.Ltd. 6 Munir Bashir Ahmed 7 Mallappa Sidgounda Birajdar 8 New India Assurance Co.Ltd. 9 Atul Bhagwant Jadhav 10Kum.Vaishali Bhagwant Jadahv ...Respondents Mr.M.R.Katikar for the appellants Mr.S.K.Jain for the respondent no.1 Mr.S.M.Vidarthi for respondent no.8 CORAM : A.S.OKA,J. DATE : JULY 13, 2011 ORAL JUDGMENT: 1 Heard learned counsel for the appellants and the learned counsel for the first respondent. None appears for the second respondent. This is an appeal preferred by the original claimants in a claim petition under section 110-A of the Motor Vehicles Act,1939. The first appellant is the widow of the deceased and 2nd and 3rd appellants are the children of the deceased. The vehicles involved in the accident are jeep and luxury bus owned by the seventh and fourth respondents respectively. The deceased was travelling by the jeep. The finding of the tribunal is that the accident occurred due to rash and negligent driving of the driver of the bus of the fourth 2 fa355 respondent. The third respondent is the driver of the fifth respondent is insurer of the bus. The Tribunal granted compensation of Rs.2,21,600/- with interest. 2 The learned counsel for the appellants relied upon the decision of the Apex Court in case of Sarla Verma (Smt.) and others vs. Delhi Transport Corporation and another [(2009) 6 SCC 121]. He submitted that as the deceased was in permanent employment, future prospects of increase in the salary have not been considered. He submitted that the multiplier of 12 applied by the Tribunal is on the lower side. The learned counsel for the first respondent supported the impugned Judgment and Award. 3 I have carefully considered the submissions. Perusal of the record shows that the deceased was a permanent employee of Rali Fan India Ltd. The certificate of employer shows that the gross monthly salary of the deceased was of Rs.2135/-. Apart from the salary, L.T.C and other perquisites were given to the deceased. The Tribunal has therefore rightly taken the monthly income of the deceased at Rs. 2135/-. As the age of the deceased was 40 years, in view of what is held by the Apex Court in the case of Sarla Verma (supra), 30% of the income will have to be added for the purpose of calculating the multiplicand. Adding 30% to the monthly income, the monthly amount will be Rs.2775/-. As there are total four Dependants, 1/4 th amount will have to be deducted on account of personal expenditure of the deceased. After deducting 1/4 th, as held by the Apex Court in case of Sarla Verma (supra) multiplier of 3 fa355 15 will have to be applied. The Tribunal committed an error by applying multiplier of only 12. If multiplier of 15 is applied, compensation amount will be 3,75,300/- to which usual amount of Rs. 15,000/- will have to be added. Total amount payable will be Rs.3,90,300/- which will be inclusive of the amount payable on account of No Fault Liability. 4 Another grievance made by the learned counsel for the appellants is that interest only at the rate of 6% per annum has been awarded. Considering the fact that the claim petition was of the year 1984, interest at the rate of 9% per annum ought to have been awarded. However, considering the fact that interest rates have considerably gone down during the last 10 years, on the enhanced amount, interest at the 7.5% will have to be granted. 5 Hence, I pass the following order : i) The appellants will be entitled to total compensation of Rs.3,90,300/- (inclusive of No Fault Liability). ii)The interest at the rate of 9% per annum on the sum of Rs.2,21,600/- shall be payable from the date of institution of the claim petition till realisation or deposit of the said amount with the Tribunal. On additional amount granted in the Appeal, interest will be payable at the rate of 7.5% p.a from the date of institution of the claim petition till realization or deposit of the amount with the Tribunal. The compensation shall be jointly and severally payable by the 4 fa355 original opponent nos.1 to 3 to the claim petition. iii)It is clarified that all the claimants will be entitled to compensation including the claimant no.3. Time of three months from today is granted to the 2 nd respondent to deposit the additional compensation amount with the Tribunal. iv)After the amount is deposited, the Tribunal will pass an appropriate order regarding disbursement/investment of the amount after hearing both the sides. v) Appeal is partly allowed on above terms. vi)The original claimants will be entitled to proportionate costs of the claim petition as well as proportionate costs of the Appeal from the original opponent nos.1 to 3. JUDGE