The main legal point established in the judgment is the determination of compensation in motor accident claims, including the computation of deceased's income, grant of future prospects, and compensation for loss of consortium.

JUDGMENT :

1. This appeal is by the claimants against the award dated 30.01.2021 passed by Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Pratappur, District Surajpur, C.G. in Motor Accident Claim Case No.20/2019, awarding total compensation of Rs.5,16,000/- with interest @ 6% per annum from the date of application till its realization, fastening liability on the Insurance Company, 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 16.11.2018 at about 4:30 pm, deceased-Vikas Gupta, aged about 18 years, earning Rs.9,000/- per month by working as Khalasi/ Helper in Balaji Poultry Farm, after loading chickens/ Hen in vehicle 407 bearing registration No.CG15-DA-9816 (hereinafter referred as 'offending vehicle) was going from Orissa to Wadrafnagar in offending vehicle along with non-applicant No.1 Nohar Singh, driver of offending vehicle. However, on the way, non-applicant No.1/driver of the offending vehicle by driving the same in a rash and negligent manner, dashed the offending vehicle at the pole, as a result of which, deceased fell down from the offending vehicle and sustained grievous injuries over his body and died on the spot. At the time of accident, the offending vehicle was owned by non-applicant no.2 and insured with non-applicant no.3.

3. On claim petition being filed by the claimants under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act to the tune of Rs.14,90,500/-, 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 though he has raised various grounds in the memo of appeal, however, he is not pressing all those grounds and is assailing the award on the following grounds:-

(i) that income of the deceased has wrongly been considered by the Tribunal as Rs.4,500/- per month, whereas it should be Rs.9,000/- per month, looking to the job of the deceased.

(ii) that no amount towards future prospects has been granted to the claimants.

(iii) that no amount has been granted by the Tribunal to the claimants under loss of consortium, which deserves to be enhanced suitably.

5. On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondent No.3/ Insurance Company supported the impugned award and submits that the Tribunal considering all the relevant aspects of the matter has rightly awarded compensation, which needs no interference by this Court.

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

7. As regards the income of the deceased, the claimants have pleaded that the deceased was earning Rs.9,000/- per month by working as Khalasi/ Helper in Balaji Poultry Farm and for proving the said fact, claimants have filed Salary Certificate of deceased (Ex.P-17), wherein it is mentioned that deceased was working as Khalasi/ Helper in Balaji Poultry Farm and was getting Rs.9,000/-per month and other subsistence allowance from the said farm, but the learned Tribunal did not consider the above fact and assessed the monthly income of deceased at Rs.4,500/- per month, which in the considered opinion of this Court is not reasonable. I, therefore, propose to recompute the income of the deceased by taking into account the fact that the accident occurred on 16.11.2018, at that time, deceased was a young boy, aged about 18 years, his income can safely be taken as Rs.6,000/- per month on notional basis.

8. Further, the Tribunal was not justified in ignoring the grant of future prospects to the claimants as on the date of accident i.e. 16.11.2018, deceased was aged about 18 years, unmarried and on account of the injuries suffered in the accident, he died. In such a situation, the Tribunal ought to have awarded compensation to the claimants in the head of future prospects in vi