F.A.O.NO. 2595 OF 1999 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Misc. No. 15924-CII of 2010 in/and F.A.O.NO. 2595 OF 1999 Date of decision: 21st September, 2010 Rajbala and others .......Appellants Versus Seth Pal and others ........Respondents BEFORE: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN Present: Mr. Y.P.Malik, Advocate, for the appellants. Mr. Kunal Garg, AAG, Haryana, for the State of Haryana. 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? Yes/No 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not?Yes/No 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Yes/No K.Kannan, J.(Oral) 1. Civil Misc. application for early hearing of the case is allowed as prayed for and the main appeal is taken up for hearing today. 2. The contest is only for enhancement of compensation for a person who was aged 24 years and who died in a motor accident. The factum of accident and the involvement of the respondent's vehicle are not denied. The negligence, is also not denied. The F.A.O.NO. 2595 OF 1999 2 deceased was reported to have had six acres of land and the evidence was that he was earning Rs. 7,000/- per month. In case of agriculturist where the estate is still available, the issue will be what the land will fetch by his supervisory skill. A similar situation arose in the case of State of Haryana and another versus Jasbir Kaur and others (2003) 7 SCC 484 where the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that a deceased who was 25 years old and the land was cultivable, the normal rule about the deprivation of income was not strictly applicable. The Hon'ble Supreme Court reduced in that case the income of Rs. 4,500/- to Rs. 3,000/- per month. 3. I would provide a loss of income due to supervisory skills at Rs. 5,000/- per acre and take the loss of income to be Rs. 30,000/-. The claimants were widow, two minor children and mother. The mother is reported to have died during the pendency of the appeal. I will provide for a deduction of 1/4th and take the annual contribution as Rs. 22,500/-. 4. Having regard to the fact that he was aged 24 years, I would adopt a multiplier of 18 and determine the loss of dependency to be Rs. 4,05,000/-. The Tribunal has already awarded Rs. 10,000/- for loss of consortium, Rs. 5,600/- for transportation of the dead body and funeral expenses. I will provide for an additional amount of Rs. 5,000/- towards love and affection to each minor children and make a further addition of Rs. 5,000/- towards loss to estate. In all the total amount become payable is 4,35,100/-. The Tribunal has already awarded F.A.O.NO. 2595 OF 1999 3 interest at 15%. The amount which is awarded in excess over what has already been granted by the Tribunal will attract interest at 6% from the date of the petition till the date of the payment. 5. The award of the Tribunal shall stand modified and the appeal is allowed to the above extent. The additional amount shall be divided equally among the claimants now living. [K.KANNAN] JUDGE 21st September, 2010 Shivani Kaushik