Point of Law: It is a settled law that in absence of positive documentary evidence or salary certificate, minimum wages notification should generally be applied as a yardstick to determine income of deceased.

JUDGMENT :

1. The present misc. appeal has been filed under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 against the judgment and award dated 03.08.2002 passed by the learned Judge, Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Ratangarh (hereinafter referred to, ‘the Tribunal’) in Civil Misc. Claim No.77/1998 whereby the Tribunal partly allowed the claim petition and awarded Rs.3,98,000/- as compensation to the appellants/claimants and exonerated the respondent-Insurance Company from its liability.

2. The appellants/claimants being aggrieved and dissatisfied with the compensation awarded to them by the Tribunal vide its judgment and award dated 03.08.2002 have preferred the present misc. appeal praying for enhancement of the compensation amount.

3. Briefly stated facts of the case are that appellant No.1 is wife of deceased-Gangadhar Choudhary whereas appellant Nos.2 and 3 are mother and brother of deceased-Gangadhar Choudhary. In the claim petition preferred before the Tribunal, it was pleaded that on 27.09.1998, the deceased-Gangadhar Choudhary, aged about 23 years was hit by a tanker bearing No.DL-1G-0396, which was being driven rashly and negligently by one Shri Angrej son of Hariya. It was further pleaded in the claim petition that in the road accident which occurred on 27.09.1998, deceased-Gangadhar Choudhary died on the spot. As per the claim petition, the deceased was a young and healthy person and used to earn Rs.4,000/-per month. The appellants/claimants in the claim application filed under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, prayed that compensation to the tune of Rs.31,72,000/-may be awarded in their favour.

4. The Insurance Company in its reply before the Tribunal pleaded that at the time of unfortunate accident in which deceased-Gangadhar Choudhary died, the tanker No.DL-1G-0396 was being driven rashly and negligently by the driver (Angrej S/o of Hariya) without having a valid and effective driving license. The Insurance Company pleaded that since there was fundamental breach of the terms and conditions of the insurance policy in question, the claim made by appellants/claimants was not payable. It was further pleaded that at the time of accident, driver of the tanker was not driving the vehicle in connection with his employment under respondent No.2 i.e. Harender Singh-owner of the vehicle.

5. It is apposite to note here that the driver of the offending vehicle (Angrej Singh) and owner (Harinder Singh) did not appear before learned Tribunal thus, learned Tribunal vide order dated 03.11.1999 initiated ex-parte proceedings against them.

6. After hearing the parties, the Tribunal came to the conclusion that the accident occurred on account of rash and negligent driving by the driver of the tanker but the Insurance Company has successfully proved that the driver was not having valid license and thus, it was not liable for the payment of compensation as claimed by the appellants/claimants. The Tribunal vide its judgment and award dated 03.08.2002 while absolving Insurance Company from the liability to pay compensation to appellants/claimants, held the owner and driver of tanker No.DL-1G-0396 jointly and severally liable for the compensation to the tune of Rs.3,48,000/- in favour of the appellants/claimants.

7. Learned counsel for the appellants/claimants submitted that the impugned judgment and award suffers from gross illegality as the Tribunal failed to take into consideration the correct monthly income of the deceased. It was further submitted that the component of rise in income of the deceased-Gangadhar Choudhary by future prospects while evaluating the compensation awarded to the claimants has not been taken into consideration by the Tribunal. Learned counsel placed reliance on the judgment of Hon’ble the Supreme Court in the case of National Insurance Company Limited Vs. Pranay Sethi & Ors. reported in (2017) AIR (SC) 5157.

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