Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Dipankar Pal & Ors vs M/S. Larsen & Tubro Ltd on 23 March, 2010
Author: Bhaskar Bhattacharya
Bench: Bhaskar Bhattacharya
1
Sl/ 23.3.10 F.M.A.T. 1227 of 2008
61 with
CAN 9658 of 2008
Dipankar Pal & Ors
-vs-
M/s. Larsen & Tubro Ltd., & Anr.
Mr. Jayanta Mondal ... For Appellants
Mr. Mainak Bose
Mr. Amitabha Mitra ... For Respondent No.2
This appeal is at the instance of the claimants in a proceeding under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and is directed against an award dated 11th July 2008 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal Fast Track Court-I, Alipore, South 24 Parganas in Motor Accident Claim Case No. 116 of 2006 thereby disposing of the said proceeding by awarding a sum of Rs.50,000/- in favour of the claimants as compensation with interest at the rate of 5% per annum from the date of filing of the application till realization.
Being dissatisfied the claimants have come up with the present appeal.
After hearing the learned Counsel for the parties and after going through the materials on record, we find that there is no dispute as regard death of the victim in an accident where the offending vehicle was insured by Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Limited, the insurer herein. There is also no dispute that the victim was aged 74 years and he used to get Rs.6,000/- as pension.
From the evidence on record it has been well established that due to rash and negligent driving on the part of the driver of the offending vehicle, the death had occurred.
Learned Tribunal below, while assessing the amount of compensation, was influenced by the fact that even after the death of the victim, his widow used to get a sum of Rs.4,000/- as family pension and for that reason he decided to award a lump sum amount of Rs.50,000/- as compensation, as, according to the learned Tribunal, there is no financial loss.
2The only dispute raised in this appeal is as regards the amount of compensation awarded by the learned Tribunal below.
After hearing the learned Counsel for the parties and after going through the materials on record, we are unable to approve the approach of the learned Tribunal below.
After the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Helen C Rebello & Ors -vs- Maharashtra SRTC and Anr., reported in AIR 1998 SC 3191, there is no scope of any argument that because the widow of the victim was still drawing family pension on his death such amount should be deducted.
We, therefore, find that the learned Tribunal below overlooked the principle laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the aforesaid case.
Accordingly, we set aside the award impugned and hold that in the facts of the present case, compensation should be assessed on the basis of monthly income of Rs.6,000/- after deducting 1/3rd towards personal expenditure and thereafter applying multiplier of 5; the amount thus comes to Rs.2,40,000/-. Although the appellants restricted their claim to Rs.2,00,000/-, in view of the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Nagappa -vs- Gurdayal Singh & Ors., reported in 2003 (1) WBLR (SC) 774, we are of the opinion that such fact does not stand in the way of the Court in awarding higher amount of compensation if it finds that such amount is just amount of compensation.
We, therefore, set aside the award impugned and enhance the sum to Rs.2,40,000/- with interest at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of filing of the application till actual deposit of the amount by the insurance company.
The insurance company is directed to deposit the balance amount before the Tribunal below within a month from today. It is needless to mention that running of interest will stop from the date of deposit of the amount by the Insurance Company.
With the above observation, the appeal itself stands disposed of.
In view of disposal of the appeal itself, the connected application, being CAN 9658 of 2008, has become infructuous and is 3 disposed of accordingly.
Urgent xerox certified copy, if applied for, be supplied to the appellant within one week form the date of making of such application upon compliance of all requisite formalities.
(Bhaskar Bhattacharya, J.) (Prasenjit Mandal, J.) ac