The central legal point established in the judgment is the proper assessment of compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act, taking into account the deceased's income, future prospects, and loss of consortium.

ORDER :

1. This appeal is by the claimants against the award dated 13.04.2016 passed by the 1st Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Rajnandgaon, C.G. in Claim Case No.68/2013, awarding total compensation of Rs.4,26,000/- with interest @ 6% per annum from the date of application till its realization, fastening liability on the Insurance Company along with driver and owner jointly and severally. For the sake of convenience, the parties shall hereinafter be referred to as per their description before the Tribunal.

2. As per averments made in the claim petition, on 04.09.2013, deceased-Khubchand Panjwani, who was engaged in making mixture/snacks items by running small scale industry with the help of 8-9 workers and used to earn Rs.20,000/- per month therefrom, died in the motor vehicular accident caused due to rash and negligent driving of Trailor bearing registration No.CG04-JC-6555 (hereinafter referred as 'offending vehicle') by non-applicant no.1/driver. At the time of accident, the offending vehicle was owned by non-applicant no.2 and duly insured with non-applicant no.3.

3. On claim petition being filed by the claimants under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act seeking compensation to the tune of Rs.61,00,000/-, the Tribunal considering the evidence led by both the parties passed an award as mentioned above.

4. Learned counsel for the appellants/claimants submits that the income of the deceased has wrongly been assessed by the Tribunal at Rs.3,000/- per month, whereas it should be Rs.20,000/- per month, looking to the nature of work of the deceased. He further submits that the Tribunal has not awarded any amount towards future prospects and loss of estate, which ought to have been awarded looking to the decision of Supreme Court in the matter of National Insurance Company Limited vs Pranay Sethi and others, (2017) 16 SCC 680. He also submits that the amount awarded by the Tribunal under the head of loss of consortium is extremely on lower side, which needs to be enhanced suitably, in view of the decision of Supreme Court in the matter of Magma General Insurance Company Limited vs. Nanu Ram @ Chuhru Ram and others reported in (2018) 18 SCC 130.

5. On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondent No.3/Insurance Company, while admitting that no separate appeal has been filed by the Insurance Company against the impugned award, submits that Tribunal has already awarded compensation on the higher side and also submits that the Tribunal, on the basis of evidence available on record, has rightly assessed the income of the deceased, which needs no interference by this Court. He further submits that the Tribunal has erred in not deducting any amount towards personal and living expenses of the deceased, whereas looking to the dependency upon the deceased i.e. 3, the Tribunal ought to have deducted 1/3 towards personal and living expenses of the deceased. Therefore, the amount of compensation needs to be reassessed suitably.

6. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material available on record.

7. As regards the income of the deceased, the claimants pleaded in the claim petition that deceased was earning Rs.20,000/- per month by running a small scale industry where he used to prepare mixture/snacks items and for proving the said fact, wife of the deceased was examined herself as AW-1, although she has stated in her statement that her husband was running a small scale industry by preparing mixture/snacks items and was earning Rs.20,000/- per month, but in her cross-examination, she has admitted that she has not filed any income certificate, accounts book and documents relating to profit or loss in business run by the deceased to prove that the deceased was earning Rs.20,000/- per month. However, the Tribunal, on its own, assessed the monthly income of the deceased at Rs.3,000/- per month on notional basis, whi