Rajasthan High Court - Jaipur
I C I Ci Lombard General Insurance Co Lt vs Nand Kumar Prasad on 19 April, 2012
Author: Mohammad Rafiq
Bench: Mohammad Rafiq
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN BENCH AT JAIPUR S.B. CIVIL MISC. APPEAL NO.3994/2009 ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Nand Kumar Prasad & Ors. Date of order : 19/04/2012. HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MOHAMMAD RAFIQ Shri Virendra Agarwal with Shri Prateek Sharma ) for the appellant. Shri Arun Sharma ) Shri Rishi Sharma) for the respondents.
****** This appeal has been filed by the appellant-insurance company aggrieved by the award dated 5.5.2009 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Kota whereby an amount of Rs.5,79,000 has been awarded as compensation to the claimants.
Learned counsel for the appellant has though challenged the impugned award on various grounds, but he has pressed the appeal on one ground which is that since the deceased Rabis Kumar was aged 23 years and was unmarried, therefore, deduction for his own expenses should not be just confined to 1/3rd but may be made of ½ in view of judgement of Supreme Court in Sarla Verma vs. Delhi Transport Corporation-2009 (6) SCC 121 and other judgements. In this connection he has cited the judgement of Supreme Court in National Insurance Co. Ltd. vs. Shyam Singh & Ors., SLP © No.21418/2010 decided on 4.7.2011. Learned counsel further submits that father of the deceased was a Demonstrator in the College and therefore he cannot be said to be dependent on the deceased. The Supreme Court in the aforesaid case of Shyam Singh has held that when a young man dies, the average age of his parents should be taken for determining the multiplier and not the average of the deceased. The Supreme Court relying on the earlier judgement in Sarla Verma, supra held that selection of multiplier cannot in all cases be solely dependent on the age of the deceased. If a young man is killed in the accident leaving behind aged parents who may not survive long enough to match with a high multiplier provided by the 2nd schedule, then the Court has to offset such high multiplier and balance the same with the short life expectancy of the claimants.
Learned counsel for the respondents submits that deceased was the only son of the parents, therefore, 1/3rd has rightly been deducted towards own expenses in view of judgement of Supreme Court in Shyam Singh, supra applying the multiplier on the basis of age of parents.
In Sarla Verma, supra the Supreme Court has held that if any unmarried dies in a road accident, 50% should be deducted for the own expenses of the deceased. This is done on the analogy that an unmarried person would be spending more on himself. Reference in this connection is made to para 32 of the judgement in Sarla Verma, supra in the Supreme Court Cases report.
In view of above, while maintaining the award on other aspects, it is modified in the manner that the deduction of ½ should be made towards self expenses of the deceased instead of 1/3rd. The amount of loss of income thus comes at Rs.4,32,000 (6000 x ½ = Rs.3000 x 12 x 12). The amount of Rs.3,000 awarded towards funeral expenses and transportation charges is maintained. The claimants are also held entitled to Rs.10,000 each for loss of love and affection. Thus the amount of compensation comes to Rs.4,55,000 (Rs.432000 + 3000 + 10000 + 10000).
The appeal is therefore allowed in part.
(MOHAMMAD RAFIQ), J.
RS/135 All corrections made in the judgement/order have been incorporated in the judgement/order being emailed.
(Ravi Sharma,P.A.