FAO No. 880 of 1988 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No. 880 of 1988 Decided on : 09-12-2008 Surja and another ....Appellants VERSUS Om Parkash alias Gabbar and others ....Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MAHESH GROVER Present:- Mr. Ashish Gupta, Advocate for the appellants. Mr. N.K.Khosla, Advocate for the respondent. MAHESH GROVER, J This appeal is directed against the award of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Jind, dated 3.8.1988. In an accident which took place on 20.8.1987 Jagbir lost his life. He was aged 18 to 19 years. The claim petition was preferred by his parents and the Tribunal assessed income of the deceased as Rs. 450/- per month by equating him to a labourer out of which Rs.200/- was deducted for his personal expenses and dependency was assessed as Rs. 250/- per month. Multiplier of 16 was applied to arrive at a figure of Rs.48,000/- which was granted to the claimants alongwith interest at the rate of 12% per annum from the date of filing of the present petition till the date of its realisation. After considering the arguments raised by the learned counsel for the appellant and on perusal of the award I am of the considered opinion that the award of the Tribunal deserves to be modified. FAO No. 880 of 1988 2 The deceased was aged 18 to 19 years. Hon'ble Apex Court in case titled as 'Manju Devi & another versus Musafir Paswan & another' 2005 ACJ 99 assessed the notional income of a boy aged 13 years as Rs.15,000/- per annum and applied a multiplier of 15. In the instant case, since the deceased was 18 to 19 years of age his propensity to earn would be slightly more than that has been assessed in Manju Devi's case (supra). Accordingly, income of the deceased in the instant case is assessed as Rs.18,000/- per month. Multiplier of 16 which has been applied by the Tribunal is just and appropriate. In this manner, compensation comes to Rs.2,88,000/-. An amount of Rs.12,000/- is also awarded on account of funeral expenses and loss of love and affection. Therefore, the total compensation comes to Rs.3,00,000/-. The enhanced amount of compensation shall be paid alongwith interest at the rate of 9 % per annum from the date of filing of petition till the date of its realisation. The liability to pay the amount shall be the same as has been determined by the Tribunal. The appeal stands allowed in the aforesaid terms and the award of the Tribunal is modified accordingly. December 9 , 2008 (Mahesh Grover) rekha Judge