The main legal point established in the judgment is the application and interpretation of the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, particularly in determining the quantum of compensation in fatal road accident cases.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Civil Miscellaneous Appeal filed under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, praying to set aside the decree and judgment dated 18.02.2023 passed in M.C.O.P.No.121 of 2021 by the Hon'ble Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Special District Court at Tiruvallur.)

M. Sundar, J.,

1. Captioned main 'Civil Miscellaneous Appeal' [hereinafter 'CMA' for the sake of brevity] has been filed in this Court on 04.08.2023.

2. Captioned CMA is a Statutory Appeal under Section 173 of 'the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988' [hereinafter 'MV Act' for the sake of brevity].

3. Short facts (shorn of granularity) i.e., facts imperative for appreciating this order are that there was a road accident on 29.04.2021 at about 9.45 a.m. in Tiruvallur Road off Chennai; that one Mani Prasad was riding a two wheeler (Honda Activa) bearing registration No.TN-12-H-2381 and was riding towards Tiruvallur; that the two wheeler was hit by a truck bearing registration No.TN-30-V-0477 somewhere near Sevvapet petrol bunk in Tiruvallur; that one Thiru.N.Sivashankar, son of Thiru.Natarajan  (second respondent before this Court) is the owner and driver of the said truck; that Mani Prasad sustained serious injuries i.e., head injury, injury to back bone, left hand and he died on the spot; that wife of Mani Prasad one Ms.Sagunthala filed a claim inter alia under Section 166 of MV Act before 'the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal No.I, Special District Court, Tiruvallur' [hereinafter 'said MACT' for the sake of convenience and clarity] and it is to be noted, 'MACT' is an abbreviation of 'Motor Accident Claims Tribunal'; that 'Ms.Sagunthala' shall hereinafter be referred to as 'claimant' for the sake of convenience; that the claimant sought an award of Rs.1.25 Crores; that said MACT, after full contest, on the basis of documentary and oral evidence before it passed an award dated 18.02.2023 awarding a little over Rs.35 Lakhs (Rs.35,00,090/- to be precise); that the Insurance Company which had insured the truck bearing registration No. TN-30-V-0477 owned and driven by N.Sivashankar on the fateful day (second respondent before this Court as alluded earlier in this narrative and it is to be noted that this N.Sivashankar was the first respondent before said MACT) has filed the captioned Statutory appeal i.e., CMA assailing the same on quantum.

4. In the Admission Board today, Ms.C.Bhuvanasundari, learned counsel for appellant - Insurance Company, notwithstanding very many points that have been articulated in the Memorandum of Grounds of Appeal predicated her campaign against the impugned award of said MACT on two points and the two points are as follows:

(i) Said MACT has added 15% of actual salary towards future prospects but it should be only 10% as the deceased was 54 years old on the date of the accident (Date of Birth of the deceased is 10.05.1966) and was on a fixed salary;

(2) As regards actual salary, said MACT has not taken the same by computing actual salary 'less tax'. In other words, the income tax deduction / income tax component has not been subtracted while fixing actual salary is learned counsel's say.

5. In the light of the aforementioned argument, it is clear that the captioned CMA is only on quantum (not on liability) and the points for determination are as follows:

(i) Whether said MACT was correct in adding 15% of actual salary to the income of the deceased towards future prospects;

(ii) Whether said MACT had erred in by not deducting the income tax component while arriving at actual salary.

6. In the light of the narrative thus far, we carefully considered the two points urged by the learned counsel for appellant - Insurance Company, we perused the case file before us and we are of the considered view that the captioned CMA deserves to be dismissed. The discussion and dispositive reasoning for our decision to dismiss the captioned CMA are as follo