Court No. - 3
Case :- FIRST APPEAL FROM ORDER No. - 2136 of 2018 Appellant :- Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. Respondent :- Smt. Nisha Devi And 5 Others Counsel for Appellant :- Amaresh Sinha
Hon'ble Pankaj Mithal,J. Hon'ble Rajiv Joshi,J.
Heard learned counsel for the appellant Insurance Company.
In assailing the award dated 10.1.2018 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, two arguments have been raised by the counsel. The first is that the tribunal has wrongly taken the notional income of the deceased to be Rs. 150/- per day ie. Rs. 5,000/- per month. Secondly, the tribunal has wrongly added 40% of the income/salary of the deceased for future prospects in awarding the compensation.
The deceased was stated to be earning Rs. 12,000/- per month while working as Rajgir Mistri . The tribunal has disbelieved the same as it was not proved by any one. However, looking to the nature of the job performed by the deceased and the number of dependants in the family, the tribunal took Rs. 150/- per day ie. Rs. 5,000/- as the income of the deceased.
Ordinarily, Rs. 3,000/- per month used to be taken as the notional income in the absence of clear proof of the earnings of the deceased as per AIR 2008 SC 1858 Luxmi Devi Vs. Mohd. Tabbar. However, it used to be long time back. Now with the passage of time, if Rs. 5,000/- per month is taken as the notional income particularly when it is proved that the deceased was having capacity to earn and was actually working, we do not find that it is on higher side or in any way excessive.
Rule 220-A (3) of the U.P. Motor Vehicles Rules, 1998 provides for addition of 50% of the salary to be basic salary of a person aged below 40 years.
The deceased was about 28 years and the tribunal has only allowed addition of 40% of the salary which is not higher than 50% of the salary/income as provided in the Rules.
In view of the above, we do not find any error on part of the tribunal in allowing the benefit of future prospects to the claimants.
The appeals as such has no merit and is dismissed.
The statutory amount of Rs. 25,000/- deposited before this Court shall be remitted to the tribunal for necessary adjustments.
Order Date :- 24.4.2018 SKS