HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR DIVISION BENCH CORAM: HON’BLE SHRI RAJEEV GUPTA, CJ. HON’BLE SHRI SUNIL KUMAR SINHA, J. . Appellants 1 Claimants l u ‘ Misc. Appeal No.896 of 2002 Kuleshwar Prasad Tiwari, S/o late Premnath Tiwari, 20 years 2 Anita Tiwari, /o late Premnath Tiwari, 30 years 3 Ku. Prabha TiWari, G.D/o late Premnath Tiwari, 9 years App No.3 minor through mother and natural guardian app No.2 Anita Tiwari All r/o vill Gagri, PS Arjuni Teh & Distt Dhamtari VERSUS Respondents Vasudev Paswan, S/o Sahadev r/o Non-applicants Murhena Post, Rajvali Distt Navdar (Bihar) 2 Alpana Dey, _W/o Sameer Kumar Dey r/o 350, Shortleg Kolkata - 91 Pin 700 071 The United lndia insurance Co Ltd., Branch Office — Div Office No.7 Shri ‘Arvind Sarani, 102 Third floor Kolkata through Divisional Manager, Divisional Office Kutchahary Chowk, Raipur Miscellaneous Appeal under Section 173 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 Present : Shri Santosh Bharat, counsel for the appellants. None for respondents No.1 & 2. Shri Shreekumar Agrawal, Senior Advocate with Shri Anand Gupta, counsel for respondent No.3. D ORQER (6th Apr“, 2010) The following order of the Court was passed by Rajeev Gupta, C.J. This is claimants’ appeal for enhan¢ement of compensation awarded by the Additional Motor‘ Accident Claims Tribunal, 3 ‘Dhamtari (for short ‘fhe Tribunal’) vide award dated 06.09.2002, passed in Claim Case No.108/2002. 2. As against the compensation of Rs.6,50,000/- claimed by the appellants/ claimants, unfortunate son,' daughter and grand-daughter of deceased Budhlyarinbai, by tiling a claim petition under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, for her death I in the motor accident on 20.02.2000, the Tribunal awarded a total sum of Rs.60,000/— as compensation along with interest @ 8% per - annum from the date of tiling of the claim petition till the date of actual payment. 3. The Tribunal on a close scrutiny of the entire evidence led before it, held that deceased Budhiyarinbai died on account of the injuries sustained by her in the motor accident on 20.02.2000; the accident occurred due to rash and negligent driving of the driver of the offending Vehicle Truck bearing registration No.WB-23-7617;, 'as the offending vehicle Truck on the date of the accident was insured with the United India insurance Company Limited, the insurance company was liable to pay compensation to the V ciaimant§.x//'* i. // i , \ 4. As the respondents have not fled any appeal against the award the above fndmgs recorded by the Tnbunat have now attained fnahty. 5. The Tribunal assessed the income of the deceased at Rs.1 ,300l- per month. By deducting a sum of Rs 500l~ towards the personal expenses of the deceased the claimants dependency twas assessed at Rs 800l- per month and Rs.9,600/- per annum. By multiplying the annuat dependency of Rs.‘9,600/- with the multiplier of 5, the compensation was worked out to Rs.48,000/—. The Tribunal considering that minimum amount payable under ‘no fault liability’ was Rs.50 000/-, assessed the compensation payable to the claimants at Rs 50 000/- By awarding further sum of Rs.10,000/- under Other heads, the Tribunal awarded a total sum of Rs.60,000/- as compensation to the claimants for the death of deceased Budhiyarinbai in the motor accident The Tribunal further directed payment of interest on the above amount of compensation of Rs.60,000/— @ 8% per annum from the date of filing of the claim petition till the date of actual payment 6. Shri Santosh Bharat learned counsel for the appellants submitted that the Tribunal has erred in awarding low compensation of Rs 60 ODO/- only 7. Shn Shreekumar Agrawal respondent No 3 the United India Insurance Company Limited on the other hand supported the award and contended that as deceased Budhiyarinbai was aged about 7O years the compensation of Rs 60 0001- awarded by the Tribunal is just and learned Senior Counsel for proper compensation in the facts and circumstances of the present case. 8. Deceased Budhiyarinbai was aged about 70 years on the d§ate of the accident. The claimants though pleaded that she used to eam Rs.70 - 80/- per day by running a Kirana Shop in the viiiage, no documentary evidence was produced before the Tribunal to establish that the deceased was running any Kirana Shop. i 9. Be that as it may, the compensation of Rs.60,000/- awarded by the Tribunal, in our considered opinion, is somewhat on the lower side and deserves to be enhanced suitably. 110. Considering all the relevant aspects of the matter,.we are of ,the opinion that further award of Rs.11,000/- inclusive of interest icomponent on the enhanced amount of compensation would make the compensation of Rs.60,000/- awarded by the Tribunal as just and proper compensation in the facts and circumstances of the present case. 11. The appeal tiled by the appellants/claimants for enhancement of the compensation, therefore, is allowed in part. ‘The claimants are awarded further sum of Rs.1 1 ,OOOI— inclusive of linterest component on the enhanced amount of compensation, in gaddition to the sum of Rs.60,000/- awarded by the Tribunal. :12. Respondent No.3 United lndia Insurance Company Limited is égranted three months’ time for depositing the total sum of Rs.1 1 ,OOOI— before the concerning Claims Tribunal. l 13. No order as to costs. ”Alf/l Sd/— J Kumar Sinha :i:::‘l Sd/- l Sunil Judge i ’ ’ CHIEF JUSTICE ' imw” ’1 w wLw