The main legal point established in the judgment is the assessment of compensation for the loss of gratuitous services rendered by a housewife and the determination of just and reasonable compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

G.P. MITTAL, J.

1. The appeal is directed against judgment dated 16.07.2014 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (the Claims Tribunal) whereby compensation of Rs.17,93,300/- was awarded for the death of Ms. Barkatt Bano, a housewife who died in a motor vehicular accident which occurred on 24.09.2012.

2. It is urged by the learned counsel for the Appellant that the Claims Tribunal erred in reaching the finding of negligence and that the compensation awarded is excessive and exorbitant.

3. During inquiry before the Claims Tribunal, Respondents examined Mohd. Shahzad (PW-2), an eye witness to the accident. He testified that the driver of the offending TATA 407 bearing no.UP-13F-9944 had suddenly taken a right turn in the cut as a result of which it collided against a two-wheeler driven by a male and a lady sitting on the pillion.

4. The learned counsel for the Appellant has referred to the site plan prepared by the IO to urge that the two-wheeler driver was at fault. A perusal of the site plan, in fact, supports the testimony of PW-2. Since the offending TATA 407 was taking a right turn, it was expected of its driver to have waited for the traffic going on the main road to clear before embarking on the process to take a right turn. The negligence on the part of the TATA 407 was clearly established.

5. As far as award of compensation towards the loss of gratuitous services rendered by a housewife is concerned, the Claims Tribunal has followed the judgment of this Court in Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance Company Limited vs. Master Manmeet Singh and Others, 2012 ACJ 721, wherein this Court in paras 4 to 34 held as under:-

“4. To assess the value of services rendered by a homemaker so as to calculate the loss of dependency in case of her death in a road accident is an uphill task. Sometimes the Claims Tribunals have taken the salary of a skilled worker and sometimes have taken 50% wages of a skilled worker. Clause 6 (b) of the Second Schedule to Section 163-A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (M.V. Act) lays down that the income of a non-earning spouse shall be considered to be one-third of the income of the surviving spouse. There seems to be no logic behind this. If I may say so, it is totally arbitrary and, therefore, can only be restricted to the grant of compensation as per the structured formula in petitions filed under Section 163-A of the M.V. Act.

5. The Claims Tribunal (in MAC APP. 590/2011) referred to the judgment of Lata Wadhwa & Others vs. State of Bihar & Others, (2001) 8 SCC 197; M.S. Grewal vs. Deep Chand Sood, (2001) 8 SCC 151; some English decisions and it heavily relied upon the judgment in Arun Kumar Agrawal & Another vs. National Insurance Company Limited, (2010) 9 SCC 218 to hold that it is difficult to value the services rendered by a wife and a mother. It did not follow Clause 6 (b) of the second Schedule to the M.V. Act to take one-third of the surviving spouse’s income as taken in Arun Kumar Agrawal (supra) as the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the aforesaid decision had lamented that taking one-third of the surviving spouse’s income was not based on any sound principle.

6. The Tribunal relied on Lata Wadhwa whereby value of the services rendered by a housewife aged upto 59 years was taken as Rs.3,000/-. The Tribunal doubled it to Rs.6,000/- on account of inflation as Lata Wadhwa (supra) was decided in the year 2001 selected a multiplier of ‘15’ and after deduction of one-third towards the personal living expenses, computed the loss of dependency as Rs.7,20,000/-. The Tribunal further awarded a sum of Rs.1,00,000/- towards loss of love and affection, Rs.25,000/- towards funeral charges and Rs.5,000/- towards loss to estate to compute the overall compensation as Rs.8,50,000/-. There is no Appeal by the Claimants.

7. Section 168 of the Act enjoins the Claims Tribunal to hold an inquiry into the claim to make an award determining the amount of compensation which appears to it to be just and reasonable. It ha