The claimants have examined P.W.3 to speak about the earnings of the deceased and that P.W.3 during the course of his evidence deposed that had the deceased been alive, his pay scale by the date of his retirement would have reached to Rs.40,000/-. Ex.B.2 income tax returns is of the assessment year 2000-2001, whereas the death of the deceased occurred in the month of October, 2002. If such is the case, the hike in salary of the deceased in between the date of submission of Ex.B.2 income tax returns and the death of the deceased is quite natural. In that view of the matter, the Court below cannot be faulted to assess the annual loss of income to the claimants in view of the death of the deceased at Rs.1,13,604/-. If the amount so arrived is multiplied by 14, the compensation which the claimants will get under the head of loss of dependency comes to Rs.15,90,456/- but not Rs.16,95,960/- that has been awarded by the Court below. Since the award is altered only to the extent of the compensation awarded to the claimants under the head of loss of dependency on applying multiplier 14, the claimants in addition to the amount of Rs.15,90,456/- are entitled to receive compensation awarded to them under the other heads such as consortium, funeral expenditure and thus they are entitled to receive Rs.16,17,456/(Rs.15,90,456/- + Rs.25,000/- + Rs.2,000/-= Rs.16,17,456/-) with interest and costs awarded by the Court below as the rest of the award passed by it has remained unaltered.
