FAO No. 1010 of 1994 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No. 1010 of 1994 Date of decision: 1.9.2011 Kapoor Singh and others ....Appellants Versus Bahadur Singh and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE JITENDRA CHAUHAN Present: Mr.C.B.Goel, Advocate with Mr.Parminder Singh, Advocate and Mr.Nitin Jain, Advocate for the appellants Mr.D.P.Gupta, Advocate for respondent-Insurance Company ***** Jitendra Chauhan, J.(Oral) The claimants/appellants, husband and children of Smt.Amar Kaur, who died in the accident, have preferred this appeal against the impugned Award dated 22.9.1993 passed by learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Ambala (for short 'the Tribunal'), vide which a sum of ` 64,000/- was awarded to them. The learned Tribunal after applying the multiplier of 10 awarded the compensation as under by holding the age of the deceased as 60 years, including the amount of `4000/- as last rites of the deceased Amar Kaur:- 500x 12= 6000 x10= 60,000/- Last rites = 4,000/- FAO No. 1010 of 1994 2 --------------------- Total ` = 64,000/- ------------------------ Being dissatisfied with the impugned Award, the claimants/appellants have preferred this appeal. The claimants have asserted that the learned Tribunal fell in error in assessing the income of the deceased as ` 800/- after accepting their plea that the deceased was engaged in tailoring work and selling of milk. Her contribution was assessed to be ` 500/- as a house maker. The learned counsel for the appellants submits that the amount of dependency as assessed by the learned Tribunal at `500/- per month is inadequate and the same deserves to be enhanced, as she was doing a tailoring job and selling milk. Further submits that as per postmortem report, the age of the deceased was 50 years at the time of her death. It is further submitted that keeping in view the age of the deceased, the multiplier applied by the learned Tribunal should have been 13 instead of 10, as per the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Smt. Sarla Verma and others Vs. Delhi Transport Corporation and another, 2009(3) RCR (Civil) 77 . I have heard learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the case file carefully. From the perusal of the case file, it is made clear the learned Tribunal after having accepted the assertion regarding the earning of the deceased assessed her income at `800/- per month and her contribution was made towards her family at ` 500/-. In my view, the income assessed after having been accepted the factum of earning of the deceased is on the lower FAO No. 1010 of 1994 3 side. This Court feels that the ends of justice would be met, if the contribution assessed by the learned Tribunal is enhanced from ` 500/- per month to ` 800/- per month. I order accordingly. Further, as per the postmortem report, the age of the deceased was 50 years at the time of her death, thus, the multiplier deserves to be increased from 10 to 13, keeping in view the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Smt.Sarla Verma's case (supra). The deceased left behind five members of her family. Keeping in view the number of family members and the age of the claimants, this Court feels that another amount of ` 15000/- is deserved to be paid on account of loss of love and affection. Accordingly, total compensation comes to `1,39,800/ (800x12x13 =1,24,800/- + 15,000 towards the loss of love and affection). As such, the enhanced amount i.e. ` 79,800/- (1,39,800 – 60000) shall be paid to the claimants/appellants in the manner indicated in the impugned Award within 45 days from the date of receipt of the certified copy of the judgment. In case the said amount is not deposited within the stipulated period, the appellants shall be entitled to the interest at the rate of 7.5 % per annum from the date of filing of the present appeal till its realisation. Accordingly, the present appeal is partly allowed and the impugned Award is modified to the extent indicated above. 01.09.2011 (JITENDRA CHAUHAN) anoop/gsv JUDGE