Smt. Hardeep Kaur And Anr. vs State Of Punjab And Anr. on 21 March, 1974 Equivalent citations: AIR1974SC1995, (1975)1SCC156, 1974(6)UJ288(SC), AIR 1974 SUPREME COURT 1995, 1975 (1) SCC 156, 1975 SCC(CRI) 68, 1974 UJ (SC) 288 Bench: P. Jaganmohan Reddy, S.N. Dwivedi JUDGMENT Jaganmohan Reddy J. 1. This is an appeal by special leave against the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which interfered and reduced the compensation awarded by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Punjab by Rs. 24,000/-. 2. The appellants are the parents of one Gurdeep Singh who, while he and his fiancee were going on a scooter, was knocked down by a P.W.D. Lorry belonging to the Government of Punjab and was killed. It is not denied that Gurdeep Singh was working in England and was earning € 18-13-8 per week. He came home to get married and, as stated above, died in the accident. The parents of Gurdeep Singh filed a Claim Petition. His fiancee also filed a claim petition but did not pursue it. Both the Tribunal as well as the High Court found that the driver of the PWD truck was negligent, that Gurdeep Singh was earning € 18.13.8 per week, that he was 25 years of age and that the span of life of his parents would be 60 to 65 years & that compensation to be awarded should be calculated on the basis of 20 years capitalisation of the amounts which he would be sending to his parents. While the Tribunal thought, though the evidence showed that the deceased was sending Rs. 800/- per month, the amount that he would have sent to his parents, having regard to the fact that he would have been married and would have a family, could reasonably be estimated as Rs. 400/- per month. The High Court calculated the compensation that one-third of his earnings per month, which was Rs. 1000/-, would be sent. This it fixed at Rs. 300/. per month. On the basis of Rs. 400/- per month, it is not denied that 20 year's capitalisation would be Rs. 96,000/- which was the amount awarded by the Tribunal; on the basis that Rs. 300/- would be sent the compensation would be Rs. 72,000/-. 3. In our view, the, High Court has committed a factual error in assuming that the earnings of Gurdeep Singh were Rs. 1,000/- per month while in fact it has accepted the Tribunal's finding that he was earning € 18.13.8 per week which would come to Rs. 1,500/- per month. If this fact was taken into consideration and the High Court had not committed the error of taking the earnings of the deceased at Rs. 1000/- per month, it would have certainly confirmed the compensation awarded by the Tribunal. Smt. Hardeep Kaur And Anr. vs State Of Punjab And Anr. on 21 March, 1974  1 4. In this view, this appeal must be allowed. We accordingly set aside the judgment of the High Court and confirm the compensation of Rs. 96,000/- awarded by the Tribunal. The appellants will have their costs in this Court as well as in the High Court. Smt. Hardeep Kaur And Anr. vs State Of Punjab And Anr. on 21 March, 1974  2