Aw cLAiMAms RESPONDENTS Amit Jumnani and another. APPEAL UIS 173 OF THE MOTOR VEHICLES ACT, 1988 15ingle Bench: Hon'ble Mr. N.K. Agarwal, J.1 Versus Present : Shri 8K. Guha, counSel for the appellants. None Shri Sudhir for respondent Agrawai, No.1 counsei . for respondent _ , No.2. _ ORAL 0 DER (Passed on 13‘“ day of January, 201 0) This is claimanm‘ appeal for enhancement of the compensation in the award dated 28-02-2006 passed by Ninth Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunal. Raipur (for short ‘the Tribunal’) in Claim ’Case No.66l2005 whereby and whereunder an amount of‘ Rs.3,34,000/— has been awarded .to the c|aimantslappettants as compensation aiong with 9% interest per annum from the date of appiication tili its payment. 2. The facts briefiy stated are as under: That on 16-1 2-2004, when one Kishaniai 'Jumnani (since deceased) coming from Akola to Raipnr while driving Car bearing registration No. CG 04/B-1 588 met with an accident with an unknown vehicie and due to that accident, he died on the spot. 3. The ciaimants being unfortunate wife and minor children of the deceased have filed claim petition under Section 163—A of the Motor Vehicles Act (for short "the Act‘) against the owner and insurer of the said car claiming Rs.36,50,000/- as compensation. 4. The learned Tribunal on close scrutiny of the evidence led‘ material placed and submissions made, assessed the income of the deceased at Rs.3000!-¥ per month; deducted 1/3” of ‘it towards personal expenses and thus assessed the yearly dependency as Rs.24,900l- holding the deceased of the age of 47 years at the time of accident; applied multiplier of 13 and awarded Rs:3,12,000I- on account of loss of dependency. The learned Tribunal fmther awarded Rs.22,000/- on other heads and thus awarded a total sum ofa Rs.3,34,000/— along with interest 9% per annum from the date of application. 5. Learned counsel appearing for the appellants/claimants would submit that the learned Tribunal erred in applying the multiplier of 13. As according to the finding recorded by the learned Tribunal in para 16 of its award, the age of the deceased as per postmortem report was 45 years, since the claim is tiled under Section 163-A of the Act, therefore, in View of Second Schedule under Section 163-A of the Act, the appropriate multiplier would be 15.; 6. Per contra, leamed counsel appearing for respondent/insurance Company supported the award and submitted that the multiplier of 13 has been has been rightly appiied by the learned Tribunal and the award passed by the learned Tribunal deserves to be set aside. 7. i have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the award impugned. 8. indisputably, the claim preferred by the claimants Is under Section 163-A of the Act it ls also not m dispute that as per postmortem report, the age of the deceased was 45 years at the time of accident. A perusal of para 16 of the award would reveal that the age of the deceased held by Tribunal as 47 years is not based on evidence and material placed on record. Therefore, in such circumstance, the age should have been taken into consideration by the learned Tribunal as mentioned in the postmortem report. in view of Second Schedule under Section 163-A of the Act, if the deceased is of the age between 40 to 45 years at the time of accident, the appropriate multiplier is 15. in view of the above, in the considered opinion of this Court the learned Tribunal has erred in holding the aged of the deceased as 47 years at the time of accrdent and also erred in applying the multiplier 13 in place of 15 Therefore the amount of compensation requires to be recomputed. 9. By applying multiplier of 15, the compensation on account of loss of dependency would be Rs.3,60,000/— by adding in it, the f compensation on other heads as assessed by the Iearned TribunaL the total compensation would be 3,82,000/- . 10. In the result, the appeal is partly allowed. The compensation is enhanced to Rs.3,82,000/—, the appellanie are further entitled for a sum of Rs.48,000/— in addition to the amount already awarded by the learned Tribunal. The appellants/claimants are further entitted for the interest @ 6% per annum from the date of application till its reoovery on the enhanced amount of compensation. The respondent/insurance Company is granted three months’time for its payment. Sdl- N.K.Agarwal Judge” f,