Compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act must be just, fair, and reasonable, considering future prospects and qualifications of the deceased.

JUDGMENT :

1. Both the appeals are taken up together for common disposal as they arise from the same common Award dated 16.07.2012 of the Learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Ramban (hereinafter referred to as the MACT, for short) inter alia passed on the File Nos. 45/2008 titled “Fatima Begum and others Vs. United India Insurance Company and others” and File No. 36/2008 titled “Zulekha Begum & Ors. Vs. United India Insurance Company and others” which came to be filed before the learned MACT owing to an unfortunate accident that took place on 20.04.2008 at 5 PM in the area of Banihal, Ramban, which took the lives of several passengers including the deceased involved in the claim petitions in question namely Rafeeq Ahmad and Khalid Hussain.

2. The common impugned Award dated 16.07.2012 came to be passed by learned MACT in as many as seven claim petitions including the claim petitions filed by the respondents (claim petitioners) of the instant appeals.

3. The learned MACT after culminating the enquiry proceedings in all the claim petitions including the two pertinent petitions filed by the respondents/claim petitioners awarded a total compensation amount of Rs.27,25,000/- along with interest @ 7.5% per annum from the date of filing of the claim petitions till the realization of the amounts in each of the claim petitions filed by the respondents/claim petitioners.

4. Aggrieved by the common Award dated 16.07.2012 as regards the claim petitions bearing File Nos. 45/2008 and 36/2008, the appellant-Company (respondent) in the claim petitions assailed the same through the medium of the instant appeals filed under the provisions of Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act‟, for short) on the grounds inter alia that the learned MACT has wrongly calculated the loss of dependency in both the cases by taking the income of the deceased as Rs.20,000/- in each case instead of Rs.2000/- which was being received by them at the time of the accident; that the learned MACT while computing the amount of the compensation admissible in the cases unjustifiably deviated from the guiding principles laid down from time to time by the Hon‟ble Apex Court especially passed in the landmark judgments titled “Sarla Verma and others Vs. Delhi Transport Corporation and another” and “National Insurance Company Limited Vs. Pranay Sethi and others” and that the learned MACT further underestimated the material particular of the case to the effect that the appellant-Company is not liable for indemnification in the cases as the driver of the offending vehicle was not holding a valid and effective driving licence as on the date of the accident.

5. The fateful accident which has taken the lives of the deceased in both the cases along with so many other persons has occurred on 20.04.2008 at 5 PM when Banihal bound passenger vehicle bearing No. JK02M-4595 being driven by one Krishan Gopal in a rash and negligent manner met an accident upon reaching at Anokhifall near Battery Chashma rolling down100 ft from the National Highway.

6. I have heard learned counsel for both the parties.

7. The learned counsel for the appellant-Company, Mr. Ravinder Sharma, Advocate, while reiterating his grounds already taken in the memo of appeals contended that the impugned common Award dated 16.07.2012 suffers from patent illegality and perversity as the learned MACT has fallen in error while taking the income of the deceased in both the claim petitions as Rs.20,000/- instead of Rs.2000/-. The learned counsel contended that the deceased in both the cases were serving as Rehbar-e-Taleem teachers, who admittedly as on date of accident were in receipt of the monthly honorarium/salary of Rs.2000/-. He contended that under the SARV SIKSHA ABHIYAN, unemployed educated persons having minimum qualification of 10+2 are engaged as Rehbar-e-Taleem and are paid an honorarium of Rs.1500/- for the first-two years followed by an amount of Rs.2000/- per month for next th