Shiv Narayan Dhingra, J.

By this appeal, the appellant has assailed an award passed by learned Tribunal dated 14.1.2010 whereby the Claims Tribunal awarded a sum of Rs. 27,13,900 as compensation to the claimants on the death of Davender Singh, husband of the claimant No. 1 and father of claimant Nos. 2 and 3, in a motor accident. The ground of appeal as taken by the appellant is that the Tribunal wrongly considered the income of the deceased as Rs. 25,000 per month. It is submitted that the income was assessed on the basis of expenditure incurred by the deceased on maintaining his family and dependants. There was no evidence on record to prove that the deceased was earning a sum of Rs. 25,000. The deceased admittedly was not an income tax payee and no documentary evidence was produced to prove the business income or educational qualification of the deceased. Thus, the award made by the Claims Tribunal was contrary to the settled law that in a case where income of deceased was not proved, the minimum wages should be taken as the income.

2. It is settled law that Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal has to conduct an inquiry for grant of compensation. The inquiry has to be conduct