The multiplier method is the most just and reasonable method for assessing damages in fatal accident cases.

HARBANS LAL, J.

1. The subject matter of the present reference is important but quite baffling a question, as to how the damages should be quantified which the offender, who is held responsible for terminating prematurely the life of another person by this culpable act, negligence or default is liable to pay to the legal representatives or the dependants of the deceased or, in other words, the determination of the amount of compensation which the legal representatives or dependants are entitled to get from such offender.

2. The injured person, who was the victim of any injury at the hands of another person which resulted in permanent or temporary incapacity causing thereby some loss of earning, has always been held to be entitled to get damages against the offender under the law of torts, but there was no specific provision for getting damages before 1855 in India if such injury resulted in the death of the injured person, nor was there any legal provision as to who will be entitled to get the damages or the compensation in such a contingency. The Indian Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 (hereinafter to be called the Act), for the first time provided for such damages or compensation and also enumerated the parties entitled to the same in S.1-A of the Act, which is reproduced below :

"Whenever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act, neglect or default, and the act, neglect or default is such as would (if death had not ensued) have entitled the party injured to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof, the party who would have been liable if death had not ensued shall be liable to an action or suit for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured, and although the death shall have been caused under such circumstances as amount in law to felony or other crime. Every such action or suit shall be for the benefit of the wife, husband, parent and child, if any, of the person whose death shall have been so caused, and shall be brought by and in the name of the executor, administrator or representative of the person deceased; and in every such action the Court may give such damages as it may think proportioned to the loss resulting from such death to the parties respectively, for whom and for whose benefit such action shall be brought, and the amount so recovered, after deducting all costs and expenses, including the costs not recovered from the defendant, shall be divided amongst the before-mentioned parties, or any of them, in such shares as the Court by its judgement or decree shall direct."

Section 2 similarly provides for the recovery of pecuniary loss to the estate of the deceased in an action or a suit by the executor, administrator, or the representative of the deceased. The preamble of the Act which gives the background and the purpose for enacting the legislation is to the following effect :

"An Act to provide compensation to families for loss occasioned by the death of a person caused by actionable wrong."

3. The Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, also provided for compensation arising out of the fatal accidents by motor vehicles, in Ss.110-A and 110-B. Under these provisions, all claims are to be decided by the claims tribunal, but no specific guidelines have been enacted for determining the amount of compensation. These only enable the claims tribunal to make an award

"determining the amount of compensation which appears to it to be just and specifying the person of persons to whom compensation shall be paid."

It is provided under S.110-A that the application for compensation should be made by or on behalf of all the legal representatives of the deceased.

4 However, S.1-A of the Act is more detailed and exhaustive inasmuch as it has specified the claimants being the wife, husband, parent and the child. It has also been provided that the amount of damages which will be awarded, will be in proportion to the loss resulting from such death. However, determination of the amount of loss in suit