Court No. - 34
Case :- FIRST APPEAL FROM ORDER No. - 907 of 2018 Appellant :- New India Assurance Co. Ltd. Respondent :- Smt. Noori Bano And 3 Others Counsel for Appellant :- Amaresh Sinha
Hon'ble Sudhir Agarwal,J. Hon'ble Shashi Kant,J.
1. Heard learned counsel for appellant and perused the record.
2. This appeal under Section 173 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 has arisen from judgment and award dated 17.11.2017 passed by Motor Accident Claim Tribunal/ Additional District Judge, Court No. 7, Kanpur Nagar, whereby Court below has awarded compensation of Rs. 12,74,000/- alongwith 7% simple interest in M.A.C.T. No. 655 of 2015.
3. Ground on which award is challenged is that notional income has wrongly been assessed as Rs. 3000/- per month.
4. However, it could not be disputed that accident having taken place in June, 2015 when minimum wage payable to unskilled labourers was more than Rs. 200/- per day and Court below has assessed income only at the rate of Rs. 100/- per day, which is less than minimum. Therefore, it cannot be said that notional income assessed by Court below as Rs. 3,000/- per month is excessive.
5. It is then contended that future prospect of 50% has been applied though it should have been only 40% but we find that under the heads of funeral expenses, loss of love and affection etc. only Rs. 40,000/- has been allowed though in view of recent Constitution Bench judgment in National Insurance Company Limited Vs. Pranay Sethi and others (Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 25590 of 2014), decided on 31.01.2017, Rs. 75,000/- could have been awarded. Interest is also awarded only 7% though it should be 9% in view of Supreme Court's decision in Municipal Corporation of Delhi Vs Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy 2011(14) SCC 481; Kanhsingh Vs. Tukaram, 2015 (1) SCALE 366; Kalpanaraj and Others Vs Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (2015) 2 SCC; Shashikala and Others Vs Gangalakshmamma and Another (2015) 9 SCC 150; Asha Verman and Ors Vs Maharaj Singh & Ors, 2015 (4) SCALE 329; Surit Gupta Vs United India Insurance Company (2015) 11 SCC 457; Chanderi Devi and another Vs Jaspal Singh and others (2015) 11 SCC 703; Jitendra Khimshankar Trivedi Vs Kasam Daud Kumbhar and Others (2015) 4 SCC 237.
6. Therefore, all the facts and circumstances, if taken together, it cannot be said that amount of compensation awarded by Court below is excessive, unjust or illegal. Hence, we do not find that there is any error committed by Court below which may justify a decree of reversal.
7. Appeal is accordingly dismissed at the stage of hearing under Order 41 Rule 11 C.P.C.
Order Date :- 23.2.2018 AK