Motor Accident
Compensation—Enhancement—Deceased was aged 28 years at the time of accident and used to run a business of scrap—Tribunal allowed the claim in the amount of Rs. 6,24,000 whereas the High Court awarded a compensation of Rs. 11,41,000 with 6% interest—Appeal—No dispute as to occurrence of accident and liability of insurer to pay compensation—Tribunal and High Court both committed grave error while estimating the deceased’s income by disregarding the ITR of deceased—ITR is a statutory document on which reliance be placed, where available, for computation of annual income—Deceased’s annual income be fixed at Rs. 1,18,261, approx. Rs. 9855/- per month keeping in mind the deceased’s ITR for the year 2009-2010—Deceased is survived by seven dependents, hence the appropriate deduction for personal expenses for deceased ought to be 1/5th only and not 1/4th as applied by the Tribunal and the High Court—No error found in High Court’s reasoning for adding 40% of the deceased’s income towards future prospects—Although the High Court was correct in placing reliance on 2017 (16) SCC 680, the High Court erred by not granting an increment of 10% on the conventional heads in every three years as directed in the judgment—Spousal consortium and parental consortium also needs to be increased by 10%—Total compensation payable to appellants is Rs. 25,91,388 with interest at 9% per annum from the date of filing of the application till the date of payment of the compensation to appellants—Appeal allowed.
[Paras 9]
Motor Vehicles Act, 1988
Section 168—Just compensation—Provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act gives paramount importance to the concept of ‘just and fair’ compensation—It is a beneficial legislation which has been framed with the object of providing relief to the victims or their families—Section 168 of the MV Act deals with the concept of ‘just compensation’ which ought to be determined on the foundation of fairness, reasonableness and equitability—Although such determination can never be arithmetically exact or perfect, an endeavor should be made by the court to award just and fair compensation irrespective of the amount claimed by the applicant/s.
[Para 10]