those days and since he was running a dairy farm, his income has been assessed as Rs.2400/- per month which in my opinion is on lower side. It cannot be expected that a rustic villager would be maintaining accounts for sale of milk or that the same would be available with his family after his sudden death and some amount of guess work thus has to be applied in assessing the monthly income of the deceased. Hon’ble Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No.6152 of 2021 – Chandra alias Chander alias Chanda Ram and another Vs. Mukesh Kumar Yadav , decided vide judgment dated 1.10.2021 has held that merely because claimants are unable to produce documentary evidence to show the monthly income of the deceased is not a ground to discard the oral evidence. As such, the oral version of PW4– Gurinder Kaur cannot be brushed aside. Accordingly, it can be assumed that deceased must be earning Rs.3,500/- per month from his dairy business. In addition to this, he also owned around 4½ acres of land as established from jamabandi Ex.P11 and he must be managing the same and as such, some amount has to be added to his monthly income towards his managerial skills in managing the land. Hon’ble Supreme Court in 2015(1) RCR (Civil) 625 – Smt. Neeta W/o Kallappa Kadolkar & Ors. vs The Divisional .Manager, MSRTC, Kolhapur, has held that if a person was in agricultural occupation, the monthly income can be assessed at Rs.12,000/- per month i.e. beyond the minimum wages prevalent at the time of his death. The afore-said judgment has been followed by a co-ordinate Bench of this Court in FAO No.931 of 2021 – Shri Ram General Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Santosh Devi decided vide judgment dated 28.7.2022. The accident in Smt. Neeta’s case (supra), had taken place on 22.3.2011 and judgment was
