FAO No.3270 of 2010 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.3270 of 2010 (O&M) Date of Decision : 08.11.2011 Rekha Rani and others .......Appellants Versus Sandeep and others .......Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JITENDRA CHAUHAN Present: Mr. R.S. Rana, Advocate, for the appellants. Mr. Kunal Gupta, Advocate, respondent Nos.1 and 2. Ms. Shamsher Kaur, Advocate, for respondent No.3. **** JITENDRA CHAUHAN, J. (ORAL) CM No.15372-CII of 2010 Heard. CM allowed. Delay of 100 days in filing the appeal is condoned. FAO No.3270 of 2010 1 FAO No.3270 of 2010 The claimant-appellants are in appeal before this Court seeking enhancement of the amount of compensation awarded by the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Kurukshetra, vide its Award dated 02.09.2009, on account of the death of Jaswinder Singh in a road accident. Brief facts of the case in hand are that on 17.6.2008, Jaswinder Singh alias Chandi, since deceased, along with Sandeep, left for Delhi from Ladwa, in Canter No.HR-64-1071, for selling tomatoes after loading them in the canter. The canter was being driven by respondent No.1, the driver. When the canter reached near the petrol pump in the area of Dawat Rice Mill Chouhan Joshi, (District Sonepat) an unknown truck which was going ahead of the canter, suddenly applied brakes in the middle of the road, due to which the canter struck the unknown truck from behind. After causing the accident, the driver of the unknown truck fled away from the spot along with the truck. Due to the accident, the deceased received fatal injuries and he died on the spot. The claimants-appellants, being wife, minor sons and mother of the deceased, Jaswinder Singh, preferred claim petition before the learned Tribunal, claiming compensation. The learned Tribunal, while passing the impugned Award, granted compensation to the tune of `3,84,000/- on account dependency and `10,000/- against funeral expenses, loss of consortium and loss of estate. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused the record. 2 FAO No.3270 of 2010 From the record, it is apparent that the deceased left being a widow, two minor sons and his widowed mother, who were entirely dependent upon the earnings of the deceased. The learned Tribunal has awarded a consolidated amount of `10,000/- against the heads ‘funderal expenses’, ‘loss of consortium’ and ‘loss of estate’, which in the considered opinion of this Court, is inadequate and deserves to be enhanced. In view of the above, a further amount of `15,000/- is awarded under the heads ‘funeral expenses’, ‘loss of consortium’ and ‘loss of estate’, over and above the amount already awarded by the learned Tribunal. The enhanced amount of `15,000/- shall be paid to the claimant-appellants within a period of 45 days from the date of receipt of certified copy of this judgment, failing which, they shall be entitled to interest @ 7.5% p.a. from the date of filing the present appeal, till its realization. Accordingly, the present appeal is partly allowed, and the Award dated 02.09.2009 of the learned Tribunal is modified to the extent indicated above. ( JITENDRA CHAUHAN ) 08.11.2011 JUDGE atulsethi Note: Whether to be referred to reporter ? Yes/No 3