^' l'] Smt. Sitmiya Bai, wd/o Late Saiga, aged about 30 years. Kaleshvati, S/o. Late M; $alga, aged about 13 years. 3. Pradip Baiga, S/o Late Manohar Saiga, aged about 10 years. 4. Bajrang, S/o. Chaitu Baiga, aged about 52 years, 5. Muiiya Bai, W/o. Bajrang Baiga, aged about 50 years. spellant No. 2 and 3 mi natural guardian mother Bai, wd/o Late M< abouf 30 vears. Smf. Sitmiva R/o. Village Kochara, P.S. jahna, P.S. Kota, Tahsil Kota, istrict •T- f'^.'O. 1 Chamru Singh @ Motu, S/o. Tikaram, Caste-Gond, R/o. Village Hindolko, P.S. Amarkantak, district Anuppur (M.P.) 2 Shivkumar Sharma, S/o. Ghudamani Sharma, R/o. IVlain Road, Pendra Road, District Bilaspur (C..G.) 3 The New India Insurance Company Limited, Through : Divisional Manager, Divisional Office, Rajeev Piaza, Bus Stand, Bilaspur District iilaspurC.G. >L»^ Present: Shri Gautam Khetrapsi, counse! for the appellants. Shri Shivendu Pandya, counsel for resDondent No.3. ? October, 2009 The following order of the Court was passed by tajeev Gupta, C.J. This is claimants' appeal for enhancement of the compensation awarded by the First Additional Motor Accidents Claims Tribunai, Bilaspur (for short 'the Tribunal') vide award dated 08.05.2008, passed in claim case No. 296/2007. 2. As against the compensation of Rs.13,50,000/- ctaimed by the appellants/ cialmants, unfortunate widow, minor chiidren and parents of deceased Manohar Baiga by filing a claim petltion under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicies Act for his death in the motor accident on 19.04.2007, the Tribunal awarded a totai sum of Rs.3,20,500/- as compensation aiong with interest @ 6% per annum frorn the date of fliing of the claim petition tiil the date of actua! payment. 3) Shri Gautam Khetrapal, learned counsel for the appellants referring to para'i 1 of the impugned award submitted that the Tribunai after assesslng the income of the deceased at Rs.100/- per day and Rs.3,000/- per month, appears to have committed an arithmeticai error in assessing the dependency of the ciaimants at Ss.18,000/- per annum, which, in fact, should have been ^^'saEE^,.. .^5T%. ;; ^^^^^i. 1 t tvssK -^ s 'Vls^ t&S'^"^?' ..^•f*'^ assessed at Rs.24,000/- per annum as onty 1/3''° of Rs.36,000/- was deducted by the Tribunal towards the personal expenses of the deceased. 4) Shri Shivsndu Pandya, learned counsel for respondent No.3, the New Sndia Insurance Company Limited coutd not dispute the above arithmetica! error which is apparent from para 11 of the impugned award. 5) We, therefore, propose to re-compute the compensation taking the claimants' dependency at Rs.24,000/- per annum. 3) Considering that deceased Manohar Baiga was shown to be 35 years of age in his postmortem report, though the claimants p!eaded that he was 32 years of age, we are of the opinion that murtiplier of 16 wouid be appropriate in the case in view of the dictum of the Apex Court in the case of Saria Verma Othsrs, reported in (2009) 6 SCC -121. 7) By muitiplying the annual dependency of Rs.24,000/- with the muitiplier of 16 the compensation vvorks out to Rs.3,84,000/-. By a'.varding further sum of Rs.5,000/- tovi'ards funeral expenses; Rs.5,000/- for loss of estate; and Rs.5,000,/- for loss of consortium to the 'A'idow, the ciaimants become entitled to receive a tota! sum of Rs.3,99,000/- as compensation for the death of deceased Manohar Baiga in the motor accident. 8) Learned counsel for the parties submitted th.at with a vievv to avoid any possibie dispute between the parties about the /^3Bfe- :.; period for which the ciaimants are entitled to receive interest on the enhanced amount of compensation, the amount of interest on the enhanced amount of compensation may be quantified in this ippeal itself. 3) Considering ali the reievant factors includlng the delay in disposal of the claim petition and the present appeal and the fact that the Insurance Company alone is not to be biamed for the entire delay in the matter, we quantify the amount of interest on the enhanced amount of compensation of Rs.78,500/- at ,1u?U^?/~. 10) For the foregoing reasons, the appea! filed by the appeilants/ claimants for enhancement of the compensation is aliowed in part. The compensation of Rs.3,20,500/- awarded by the Tribunal Is enhanced to Rs.3,99,000/- with further quantified amount of interest of Rs.6,500/- on the enhanced amount of ition of Rs.78,5 11) Respondent No.3 the Nsw India insurance Company Limited is granted three months' time for depositing the total sum of Rs.85,000/- (Rs.78,500/- towards enhanced amount of compensation + Rs.6,500/- towards quantified amount of interest on the enhanced amount of compensation of Rs.78,500/-) before the concerning Ciaims Tribunal. 12V ^±a__riar_asJQ_CO Sd/- Chief Justice Sd/- T.P. Sharma Judge pscima