s^ HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR DiVISIONBENCH CORAM: HON'BLE RAJEEV GUPTA, C.J. & HON'BLE SHR3 SUNSL KUMAR SSNHA, J. SVIisc. ARpeal iC} No. 1077 of 2008 1. Smt. Triveni, Wd/o. Late Bheekham Ram Verma, aged about 47 years, 2. Shri Khumman Lal, S/o. Late Bheekham Ram Verma, aged about 25 years 3. Ku. Kaushilya, D/o. Late Bheekham Ram Verma, aged about 1 8 years AIE R/o. Viilaae Kohka, P.S. Dongargaon, District Rajnandgaon RESPONDENTS Versus Mohd. Rafique Ahmad, R/o. Saru Station Road, Dharar Nagar, Jam Nagar (Gujrat) At Present R/o. Dharam-Nagar behind Kaimana Market, Nagpur (Maharastra) Mukesh Dhamjee Bhai Rathore, R/o. Village Rote Bijhoni, Tahsil Khamariya, District Jamnagar (Gujrat) At Present R/o. Sangharsh Nagar Amravati (Maharastra) Pojicy Issuing Office, 92 Purva Kost Chambers First Floor, G;N. Chetti Road, T. Nagar Chennai Through Divisional Man^ger, The New Indla Insurance Company LEmited, Bhilal Power House, Djstrj.et Durg (C.G.) (S IVIerrsorandum ofADpeal under Section 173 ofthe Motor VehlcSes Act. 1988 Present: Shri Goutam Khetrapal, iearned counsei for the appeilants. ORDER (11th August, 2008) The foilowing order of the Court was passed by Rajeev Gupta, C.J. Shri Goutam Khetrapai, learned counse! for the appellants is heard on admission. 2. Thls is daimants' appeat for enhancement of the compensation awarded by the First Additional Motor Accident C!aims Tribunai, Rajnandgaon vide award dated 08-05-2008, passed in Claim Case No.1 11/2007. 3. The c'aimants, unfortunate widow and children of deceased Bheekham Ram Verma claimed compensation of Rs.24,13,0007- by fliing a daim petition under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act for his death in the motor accldent when the Hero Honda Motorcycie bearing registration No.C.G.-08-E-1465 on which he was travelling was das'ned by the offending vehicie Trailer, bearing registration No. GJ-10-W-6300, resultlng in his instantaneous death on the spot Itself. The ciaimants further pieaded that deceased Bheekham Ram Verma was aged about 50 years and used to earn Rs.16,000/- per month as Civi! Contractor. 4. The owner and driver of the offending vehicle Trailer did not contest the ciaim and were proceeded ex parte before the Tribuna!. The Insurer of the offending vehicle Trailer contested the ciaim and \ .,.^5S23:^.. ^^k'^\ ^^-^ 11 "% ^j^y/ ''^s^'" @ denied its liability to pay compensation to the daimants on the piea that the motorcyclist was responsibfe for the accident; the Traiier was belng piied in breach of the poiicy conditions; and the driver of the Traiier was not holding a va!id driving ticence. 5. The Tribunal on a ciose scrutiny of the evidence led before it held that deceased Bheekham Ram Verma died on account of the injuries sustained by him in the motor accident on 1 4-05-2007; the accident occurred due to rash and negligent driving of the driver of the offending vehicle Trailer; as the offending vehicle Traiier on the date of the accidsnt was insured with the New Indla Insurance Company Limited, the Insurance Company was iiable to pay compensation to the ciaimants. 6. The Tribunai, on the basis of the two income-tax returns adduced by the ciaimants in evidence, assessed the income of the deceased at Rs.8,000/- per month. By deducting a sum of Rs.2,650/- (about 1/3rd) towards the personal expenses of the deceased, the claimants' dependency was assessed at Rs.5,350/- per month and Rs.64,200/- per annum. By multiplying the annua) dependency of Rs.64,200/- with the multipiier of 10, the compensation was worked out to Rs.6,42,000/-. By awarding further sum of Rs.5,000/- towards loss of consortium to the widow, Rs.2,000/- towards funeral expenses; and Rs.2,500/- for loss of estate, the Tribunal awarded a total sum of Rs.6,51,500/- as compensatlon to the claimants for the death of deceased Bheekham Ram Verma in the motor accident. The Tribunal further \ c: directed payment of interest @ 6% per annum on the above amount of compensation of Rs.6,51 ,500/-. 7 . Shri Goutam Khetrapa!, tearned counsel for the appeiiants vehemently argued that the TribunaS has erred in not accepting the claimants' evidence about the income of the deceased and in assessing his income at Rs.8,000/- per month only; in selectlng the lower muitipiier of 10; and in awarding low compensation of Rs.6,51,500/- only to the claimants. 8. in a motor accident ciaim case what is important is that the compensation to be awarded by the Courts/Tribunai shouid be just and proper compensation in the facts and circumstances of the case. !t should neither be a meager amount of compensation nor a bonanza. 9. The claimants though pleaded that deceased Bheekham Ram Verma used to earn Rs.16,000/- per month as Clvii Contractor, the income of the deceased shown in the income-tax returns adduced in evidence before the Tribunal was Rs.90,500/- & Rs.99,600/". The TribunaE, In our opinion, by taking the average of the Income shown for the two years has not committed l!legality in assessing the income of the deceased at Rs.8,000/- per month. We, therefore, do not find any scope for jnterference on account of the assessment of the income ofthe deceased by the TribunaJ. 10. The ciaimants' dependency also has been rightly assessed by the Tribunai In deducting the usua! 1/3 towards the personai expenses ofthe deceased. subbu 11. The multjpfier of 10 selected by the Tribunal considering that the deceased was aged about 51 years cannot be found fault with jn view of the dictum of the Apex Court in the case of New indsa Assia'ance Co. Ltd. Vs. Kalpana and Others, reported in 2007 ACJ §25wherein the multipEier of 13 was found to be appropriate by the Apex Court for the age group of 30-35 years. 12. For the foregoing reasons, we do not find any scope for enhancement of the compensation awarded by the Tribunal either on account of the assessment of the income of the deceased or the ciaimants' dependency by the Tribunaj or the multipiier seiected. 13. The appea! flied by the appeliants for enhancement of the compensation, therefore, is iiabie to be dismissed and is hereby dismissed summariiy. Sd/- Chief Justice Sd/- Sunil Kumar Sinha Judge