Disposed

Harwinder Kaur etc. v. Nirbhai Singh etc.

Punjab & Haryana HC19 Sept 2024FAO/5297/2009

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

Four appeals sought enhancement of compensation under a common MACT award for deaths in one motor accident of 21.02.2008. The court reworked compensation adding 40% future prospects, loss of estate, funeral expenses and loss of consortium per Supreme Court precedents, enhancing amounts in all four appeals with 7.5% interest.

What the court decided

AI extract

Harwinder Kaur etc. Vs Nirbhai Singh etc. — Motor Accident Claims | Punjab & Haryana HC (2024)

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH

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Reserved on: 17.09.2024 Pronounced on: 19.09.2024

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I. FAO-5293-2009
KARAMJIT KAUR AND OTHERS
. . . .APPELLANTS
Vs.
NIRBHAI SINGH @ BHOLA AND OTHERS
. . . . RESPONDENTS

II. FAO-5294-2009
MANDEEP SINGH AND OTHERS
. . . .APPELLANTS
Vs.
NIRBHAI SINGH @ BHOLA AND OTHERS
. . . . RESPONDENTS

III. FAO-5295-2009
BAGGA SINGH
. . . .APPELLANT
Vs.
NIRBHAI SINGH @ BHOLA AND OTHERS
. . . . RESPONDENTS
****
IV. FAO-5297-2009
HARWINDER KAUR AND OTHERS
. . . .APPELLANTS
Vs.
NIRBHAI SINGH @ BHOLA AND OTHERS
. . . . RESPONDENTS

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Sarita Rani 2024.09.20 06:03 I attest to the accuracy of this document/order

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2024:PHHC: 124458 2024:PHHC: 124460 2024:PHHC: 124461 2024:PHHC: 124463

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FAO-5293-2009 FAO-5294-2009 FAO-5295-2009 FAO-5297-2009

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CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE DEEPAK GUPTA

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Present:Mr. M.K. Singla, Ms. Shikha Singla and

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Mr. Dinesh Kumar, Advocates, for the appellants.

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Mr. Pardeep Goyal and Ms. Simran, Advocates, for respondent No.3-Insurance Company

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DEEPAK GUPTA, J.

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These four appeals have arisen out of common award dated 01.06.2009 passed by learned MACT, Sangrur. Though as many as seven claim pe00ons were filed arising out of same motor vehicular accident resul0ng into the common award dated 01.06.2009, but only the claimants of four of the claim pe00ons have approached this court by way of present appeals, seeking enhancement in compensa0on.

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Motor vehicular accident had taken place on 21.02.2008. Claimants /appellants do not dispute the factum of the accident or any other finding of the Tribunal except to the extent of quantum of compensa0on. Even on the aspect of assessing the compensa0on amount in all the four appeals, the only plea raised by learned counsel for the claimants-appellants is that the compensa0on under the tradi0onal heads of loss of estate and funeral expenses have not been awarded. Besides, no future prospectus were added in the total income of the deceased and the loss of consor0um or filial consor0um was not adequately granted.

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3.1 Ld. counsel for the appellants-claimants has prayed for enhancing the compensa0on in the light of the law explained by Hon’ble Supreme Court in “Sarla Verma and others v. Delhi Transport Corpora�on and another” , (2009) 6 Supreme Court Cases 121 ; “Na�onal Insurance Company Limited v. Pranay Sethi and others ” 2017(4) RCR (Civil) 1009 and “Magma General Insurance Company Ltd. v. Nanu Ram @ Chuhru Ram and others”, 2018(18) SCC 130 and “N. Jai Shree and others Vs. Chola Mandalum M.S. General Insurance Company Ltd.” 2021 (4) RCR (Civil) 642 .

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3.2 Learned counsel for the Insurance Company has very fairly con-

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Sarita Rani 2024.09.20 06:03 I attest to the accuracy of this document/order

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Page 2 of 8

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FAO-5293-2009 FAO-5294-2009 FAO-5295-2009 FAO-5297-2009

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ceded that compensa0on amount needs to be enhanced, as no compensa0on has been awarded under the tradi0onal heads and also for the loss of consor-

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0um.

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I have heard ld. counsel for both the par0es.

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Although the income of the four deceased in these four cases appear to have been taken on lesser side, but counsel for the claimants-appellants does not dispute the income of the deceased and has requested to enhance the compensa0on by taking the income as such, as has been taken into considera0on by the Tribunal.

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6.1 In FAO-5293-2009 ‘Karamjit Kaur and others Vs. Nirbhai Singh @ Bhola’, deceased Jaswinder Singh was aged 29 years. There are five claimants. The Tribunal has assessed the total compensa0on to be ₹7,27,000/- by taking the monthly income of the deceased at ₹5000/- and taking the mul0plier of 18.

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6.2 In FAO-5294-2009 ‘Mandeep Singh and others Vs. Nirbhai Singh @ Bhola’ deceased Inderjit Kaur was aged 33 years. There are three claimants. The Tribunal has assessed the total compensa0on at ₹4,10,000/- by taking the monthly income of the deceased as ₹5000/- and applying the mul-

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0plier of 17 .

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6.3 In FAO-5295-2009 ‘Bagga Singh and another Vs. Nirbhai Singh @ Bhola’, deceased Sinder Kaur was aged 34 years. There are two claimants. The Tribunal has assessed the total compensa0on of the amount of ₹3,67,000/- by taking the monthly income of the deceased as ₹3000/- and taking the mul0plier to be 15.

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6.4 In FAO-5297-2009 ‘Harwinder Kaur and others Vs. Nirbhai Singh @ Bhola’ deceased Supinder Singh was aged 32 years. There are three claimants. The Tribunal has assessed the total compensa0on at ₹5,51,000/- by taking the monthly income of the deceased as ₹4,000/- and applying the mul0plier of 17 .

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Keeping in view the latest legal posi0on as explained by Hon’ble

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Sarita Rani 2024.09.20 06:03 I attest to the accuracy of this document/order

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Page 3 of 8

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FAO-5293-2009 FAO-5294-2009 FAO-5295-2009 FAO-5297-2009

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Supreme Court in Sarla Verma; Pranay Sethi ; and Nanu Ram @ Chuhru Ram (supra) , the re-worked amount of compensa0on will be as under: -

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I. FAO No.5293 of 2009

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(Karamjit Kaur and others v. Nirbhai Singh @ Bhola and others)

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	Deceased Jaswinder Singh Age – 29 years Number of claimants - 5	CompensaEon awarded by MACT (in₹)	CompensaEon assessed by this Court (in₹)
1.	Monthly earning of deceased	5,000/-	5,000/-
2.	Annual Income	60,000/-	60,000/-
3.	Deduc0on for self expenses	1/3	1/4
4.	Annual income a@er deduc0on for self expenses	60,000 – 20,000 = 40,000/-	60,000 – 15,000 = 45,000/-
5.	A@er adding future prospects of 40 %	----	45,000 +18,000/- = 63,000/-
6.	Mul0plier	18	17
7.	Compensa0on	40,000 x 18 = 7,20,000/-	63,000 × 17 = 10,71,000/-
8	Loss of estate	---	18,000/-
9.	Funeral expenses	2,000/-	18,000/-
10.	Loss of consor0um
	(i) Parental (ii) Filial (iii) Spousal	5,000/-	48,000 x 2 = 96,000/- 48,000 x 2 = 96,000/- 48,000 Total = (2,40,000/-)
	Total compensaEon	7,27,000/-	13,47,000/-
	Enhanced compensaEon	6,20,000/-

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Sarita Rani 2024.09.20 06:03 I attest to the accuracy of this document/order

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Page 4 of 8

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2024:PHHC: 124458 2024:PHHC: 124460 2024:PHHC: 124461 2024:PHHC: 124463

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FAO-5293-2009 FAO-5294-2009 FAO-5295-2009 FAO-5297-2009

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II. FAO No.5294 of 2009

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(Mandeep Singh and others v. Nirbhai Singh @ Bhola and others)

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	Deceased Inderjit Kaur	CompensaEon	CompensaEon
	Age – 33 years Number of claimants : 3	awarded by MACT (in₹)	assessed by this Court (in₹)
1.	Monthly earning of deceased	3,000/-	3,000/-
2.	Annual Income	36,000/-	36,000/-
3.	Deduc0on for self expenses	1/3	1/3
4.	Annual income a@er deduc0on for self expenses	36,000 – 12,000 = 24,000/-	36,000 – 12,000 = 24,000/-
5.	A@er adding future prospects of 40 %	----	24,000 +9,600 = 33,600/-
6.	Mul0plier	17	16
7.	Compensa0on	24,000 x 17 = 40,8000/-	33,600 × 16 = 5,37,600/-
8.	Loss of estate	---	18,000/-
9.	Funeral expenses	2,000/-	18,000/-
10.	Loss of consor0um (i) Parental (ii) Filial (iii) Spousal	----	48,000 x 3 = 1,44,000/- Total = (1,44,000/-)
	Total compensaEon	4,10,000/-	7,17,600/-
	Enhanced compensaEon	3,07,6	00/-

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Sarita Rani 2024.09.20 06:03 I attest to the accuracy of this document/order

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Page 5 of 8

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2024:PHHC: 124458 2024:PHHC: 124460 2024:PHHC: 124461 2024:PHHC: 124463

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FAO-5293-2009 FAO-5294-2009 FAO-5295-2009 FAO-5297-2009

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III. FAO No.5295 of 2009

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(Bagga Singh and another v. Nirbhai Singh @ Bhola and others)

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	Deceased Sinder Kaur	CompensaEon	CompensaEon
	Age – 34 years Number of claimants : 2	awarded by MACT (in₹)	assessed by this Court (in₹)
1.	Monthly earning of deceased	3,000/-	3,000/-
2.	Annual Income	36,000/-	36,000/-
3.	Deduc0on for self expenses	1/3	1/3
4.	Annual income a@er deduc0on for self expenses	36,000 – 12,000 = 24,000/-	36,000 – 12,000 = 24,000/-
5.	A@er adding future prospects of 40 %	----	24,000 +9,600 = 33,600/-
6.	Mul0plier	15	15
7.	Compensa0on	24,000 x 15 = 3,60,000/-	33,600×15 = 5,04,000/-
8.	Loss of estate	---	18,000/-
9.	Funeral expenses	2,000/-	18,000/-
10.	Loss of consor0um (i) Parental
	(ii) Filial		48,000/-
	(iii) Spousal	5,000/-	48,000/-
			(96,000/-)
	Total compensaEon	3,67,000/-	6,36,000/-
	Enhanced compensaEon	2,69,0	00/-

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Sarita Rani 2024.09.20 06:03 I attest to the accuracy of this document/order

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FAO-5293-2009 FAO-5294-2009 FAO-5295-2009 FAO-5297-2009

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IV. FAO No.5297 of 2009

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(Harwinder Kaur and others v. Nirbhai Singh @ Bhola and others)

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	Deceased Supinder Singh Age – 32 years Number of claimants : 3	CompensaEon awarded by MACT (in₹)	CompensaEon assessed by this Court (in₹)
1.	Monthly earning of deceased	4,000/-	4,000/-
2.	Annual Income	48,000/-	48,000/-
3.	Deduc0on for self expenses	1/3	1/3
4.	Annual income a@er deduc0on for self expenses	48,000 – 16,000 = 32,000	48,000 – 16,000 = 32,000
5.	A@er adding future prospects of 40 %	----	32,000 +12,800 = 44,800/-
6.	Mul0plier	17	16
7.	Compensa0on	32,000 x 17 = 5,44,000/-	44,800 × 16 = 7,16,800/-
8.	Loss of estate	---	18,000/-
9.	Funeral expenses	2,000/-	18,000/-
10.	Loss of consor0um
	(i) Parental		48,000
	(ii) Filial	5,000/-	48,000
	(iii) Spousal		48,000 1,44,000/- Total = (1,44,000/-)
	Total compensaEon	5,51,000/-	8,96,800/-
	Enhanced compensaEon	3,45,800/-

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The claimants-appellants of the respec0ve claim pe00ons shall

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be en0tled to the enhanced compensa0on along with interest @ 7.5% per an-

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Sarita Rani 2024.09.20 06:03 I attest to the accuracy of this document/order

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FAO-5293-2009 FAO-5294-2009 FAO-5295-2009 FAO-5297-2009

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num from the date of filing of the claim pe00on 0ll the realiza0on. The compensa0on amount shall be paid in the same propor0on as awarded by the Tribunal. It is further made clear that if during the pendency of these appeals, any of the claimants has expired, the compensa0on amount of his share shall be paid to his legal heirs.

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