1 The appellants, original claimants, have filed this appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, for enhancement, against the judgment and award dated 4th July 2000 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Sabarkantha, Himmatnagar, Camp At: Modasa, in M.A.C. Petition No.811 of 1990, whereby, the Tribunal awarded Rs.88,000/- with interest at the rate of 12% per annum from the date of the claim petition till realization against the opponents jointly and severally.
2 Deceased Ramabhai Manabhai Chamar was the passenger of Jeep No.GNR 1137 and he was travelling in the said jeep. Opponent No.1 was the driver of the said jeep. When the accident took place, the deceased was going to Dhasura. When the said jeep was passing through Kolikhad near Saiyedkamba an ambassador car No. GJ-1-6260 came in rash and negligent manner and dashed with jeep No.GNR 1137. Because of the said accident, Ramabhai Manabhai, who was travelling in the said jeep, died. The family members of the deceased Ramabhai Manabhai have filed MACP No.811 of 1990 before the Tribunal wherein an amount of Rs.2,50,000/- was claimed as compensation by the claimants. After hearing both sides and considering the evidence, the Tribunal awarded Rs.88,000/- to the claimants.
3 In this appeal for enhancement, one of the main contentions is about the first deduction of one-third amount towards personal and living expenses of the deceased from the income determined and, at the same time, the second deduction of two-third amount on the basis that the deceased was unmarried and, thus, the claim amount is correspondingly reduced. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the appellants that it is not permissible to the Tribunal to deduct such amount twice as held in paragraph 17 of the impugned judgment. Hence, the impugned award passed by the Tribunal deserves to be set right by this Court. In support of the above contention, the learned counsel for the appellants has relied upon the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of Sarla Verma vs. DTC, reported in (2009) 6 SCC 121.
4 Learned counsel for the Insurance Company is unable to dispute the above proposition of law as held in Sarla Verma (supra) and deduction of one-third and two-third towards personal and living expenses of the unmarried deceased from the income determined at two stages while determining the income of the deceased and loss of dependency is contrary to the law laid down by the Apex Court in in Sarla Verma (supra).
5 Upon consideration of the submissions made by the learned counsels for the parties and on perusal of the record and reasoning and findings of the Tribunal while determining the compensation, it is evident from paragraph 17 of the impugned judgment that, while considering the monthly income of the deceased as Rs.1500, one-third is deducted towards personal and living expenses of the deceased and net monthly income is assessed as Rs.1000/-. Once again, after applying the structured formula as per Section 163A of the Act, two-third deduction is made towards personal and living expenses of the deceased from the total income and, therefore, the above error needs to be corrected.
6 If the income of the unmarried decided is considered to be Rs.1500/- as applied by the Tribunal, as per the law laid down by the Apex Court in Sarla Verma (supra), 50% should be considered as personal expenses of the unmarried deceased and, therefore, net monthly income would be Rs.750/- and multiplied by 12, the total annual income is Rs.9000/- and, applying the multiplier of 17, the dependency amount, namely, future loss of income, would be Rs.1,50,000/-. As the Tribunal had already awarded Rs.68,000/-, the appellants are entitled to Rs.85,000/- as additional compensation under the above head. The amounts awarded by the Tribunal towards other heads are not disturbed.
7 In the result, this appeal is allowed. The judgment and award dated 4th July 2000 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Sabarkantha, Himmatnagar, Camp At: Modasa, in M.A.C. Petition No.811 of 1990 is modified to the extent that the appellants are entitled to Rs.85,000/- as additional compensation under the head of 'dependency amount', with interest and proportionate cost to the claimants, as awarded by the Tribunal.
(ANANT S. DAVE, J.) (swamy) Top