1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN AT JAIPUR BENCH, JAIPUR O R D E R S.B. Civil Miscellaneous Appeal No.1298 of 2001. Smt. Narbada wife of late Shri Babu Lal & Others VERSUS R. Ahmad (Rafeeq Ahmad) son of Shri Abbas Miyan Shekh & Others Date of Order :::: 10/11/2009 Hon'ble Mr. Justice Dalip Singh Mr. Vinay Mathur, Counsel for the claimant-appellants Mr. Ashish Sharma, For Mr. Alok Sharma, Counsel for the Respondent *** By the Court : Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record as well as the award of the learned Tribunal. This miscellaneous appeal has been preferred by the claimants on account of the death of Babu Lal, who was the driver of the Truck bearing No.GJ-7-T-8400, who died in a road accident way back on 17.02.1994. The submission of the learned counsel for the claimant-appellants is that the learned Tribunal has ignored the evidence available on record and has arbitrarily assessed the 2 income of the deceased as Rs.2000/- per month and the dependency of the family as Rs.1500/-. Learned counsel for the claimant-appellants has pointed out that the evidence available on record in the form of the statement of the widow of the deceased was to the effect that the deceased used to earn about Rs.3000/- per month and gave her Rs.2000/- per month for running the house-hold expenses. At the same time, there is also the statement of AW- 2 Mohan, co-driver of the vehicle on which the deceased was also a driver employed by the employer. As per the statement of AW-2 Mohan, the deceased was being paid salary of Rs.2,500/- per month. The aforesaid evidence has remained unrebutted from the side of the respondents. In the facts and circumstances of the present case, therefore, I am of the view that when direct evidence is available on record, it is reasonable to arrive at a finding on the basis of the same, rather than to go into the realm of conjunctures and surmises. In the facts and circumstances of the present case, therefore, I am inclined to hold that the income of the deceased at the time of accident was Rs.2,500/- per month. On the basis of the above, the dependency of the family after making a deduction of 1/3rd comes to approximately Rs.1700/- as a rounded figure. 3 The age of the deceased as assessed by the learned Tribunal was in between 30-35 years and, therefore, the multiplier to be adopted, as per the Schedule-II would be 17 only. In view of the aforesaid, the loss of dependency on account of the death of the deceased in the road accident is assessed as follows :- (1700x12x17) = Rs.3,46,800/- The amount of Rs.3,06,000/- has already been paid to the claimants under the head of loss of income. In view of the above, the claimant-appellants would be entitled to get an additional sum of Rs.40,800/- (Rupees forty thousand & eight hundred only) by way of enhanced compensation for the loss of earning. The aforesaid amount of Rs.40,800/- shall be paid to the claimants with interest @ 6% per annum with effect from the date of filing of this appeal i.e. 22.03.2000 up to the date of its realization. This amount shall be paid by means of demand draft in favour of the claimant before the learned Tribunal. The miscellaneous appeal stands allowed to the extent as aforesaid. There will be no order as to costs. (Dalip Singh), J. ashok/