Case: Syed Basheer Ahamed &amp; Others Vs. Mohd. Jameel &amp; Another

Challenge in this appeal, by special leave, is to the judgment and order dated 26th June, 2006 passed by the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore, holding that the appellants herein are entitled to a compensation of Rs.3,56,000/- along with interest at the rate of 6% per annum from the date of filing of the claim petition till the date of actual deposit of the compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short ‘the Act), as against the compensation of Rs.6,08,000/- with interest at the rate of 6% per annum, awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Mysore (for short `the Tribunal) vide order dated 19th April, 2002.

Reasoning: arriving at just compensation, it is necessaryn the net income of the deceased available for the support of himself and his dependents at the time of his death and the amount, which he was accustomed to spend upon himself. This exercise has to be on the basis of the data, brought on record by the claimant, which again cannot be accurately ascertained and necessarily involves an element of estimate or it may partly be even a conjecture. The figure arrived at by deducting from the net income of the deceased such part of income as he was spending upon himself, provides a datum, to convert itmp sum, by capitalising it by an appropriate multiplier (when multiplier method is adopted). An appropriate multiplier is again determined by taking into consideration several imponderable factors. Since in the present case there is no dispute in regard to the multiplier, we deem it unnecessary to dilate on the issue.