The main legal point established in the judgment is the assessment of compensation for the death of a child in a motor vehicular accident, relying on previous judgments and the pronouncement of the Honble Supreme Court.

Vinod K. Sharma, J. - The present appeal has been filed by the claimant- appellants against the award dated 18.3.1994 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Kurukshetra (hereinafter referred to as the Tribunal) in MACT Case No. 116 of 1992 Ravinder Kaur and another v. Roop Lal etc. for enhancement of compensation granted on account of death of their son Amandeep Singh alias Happy, aged about 4 years in a motor vehicular accident.

2. The claimant-appellants in their claim petition stated that the deceased was their only male child and that they have no capacity to produce any other child.

3. The brief facts of the case are that respondent No. 1 was the owner and respondent No. 2 was the driver, whereas respondent No. 3 was insurer of the offending vehicle bearing registration No. HPS 4794. They contested the claim petition filed by the claimants and on the pleadings of the parties, following issues were framed :-

"1. Whether the accident in question took place because of rash and negligent driving of respondent driver ? OPP

2. If issue No. 1 is proved, to what amount, if any, are petitioners in each case entitled to as compensation and from whom ? OPP

3. Relief."

4. On issue No. 1, the learned tribunal was pleased to hold that accident had occurred due to rash and negligent driving of truck driver. On issue No. 2, the learned Tribunal by relying upon a Full Bench Judgment of this Court in Bimla Devi etc. v. National Insurance Co. and another, 1988(2) PLR 301 was pleased to hold that in case of a child between 5-9 years, there is not much scope for evaluating the multiplier exactly, but at the same time reasonable expectation of pecuniary benefits in the future is not totally ruled out. It was further held by the Full Bench that certain Courts have computed the dependency for these children also, but by relying upon the observations of the Supreme Court, it was concluded that it was a mere guess work and, therefore, it was not correct to proceed to compute mathematically the future damages when the annual dependency is likely to be a pure guess. Keeping in view the said judgment, the claimants were granted a sum of Rs. 30,000/- to be shared equally by both the claimants. The interest @ 12% P.A. from the date of claim petition till realization was also granted. The share of Ravinder Kumar claimant was further directed to be deposited in a nationalized Bank in some highest interest bearing scheme.

5. The learned counsel for the claimant-appellants by relying upon the judgment of this Court in Major S.S. Rawat and another v. Tilak Raj and others, 2004(2) PLR 233 claimed that as the son of the appellants had high prospects of studying upto the highest level and further the parents have been deprived to get love and affection of the child during the life time, claimed a sum of Rs. 2 lacs as was granted in that case.

6. I have considered the arguments of the learned counsel for the appellants and also taken note of the fact that the evidence had been brought on record and that the deceased was the only son of the claimant Ravinder Kaur and due to injuries suffered by her, there was no possibility of her getting another child. However, there is no other evidence on record for assessment of the compensation payable to the claimants on account of death of the minor child who was 4 years old. Therefore, for the purpose of assessment of compensation, it would be safe to rely upon the judgment of the Honble Supreme Court in the case of Lata Wadhawa and others v. State of Bihar and others, 2001(3) PLR 9, wherein the Honble Supreme Court was pleased to assess the compensation payable on account of death of a child in the age group of 5 to 9 years. Para 11 of the said judgment reads as under :-

"So far as the award of compensation in case of children are concerned, Mr. Justice Chandrachud, has divided them into two groups, first group between the age group of 5 to 10 years and the second group between the age group of 10 to 15 year