The main legal point established in the judgment is the liability of the Insurance Company to pay the awarded compensation and the apportionment of compensation amount, in accordance with the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and insurance policy terms and conditions.

Rajiv Narain Raina, J.

1. It appears from the record that the deceased-Jitender was sitting on the tractor bearing Registration No.HR-13C-9073 on the fateful day driven by Mahesh, who was also the owner of the tractor insured with the appellant-Insurance Company. The license to drive a tractor was valid and the vehicle was injured when the fatal accident took place on 11.02.2016. The tractor was plying on road with men on board when Jitender (deceased) sitting on the mudguard fell to be crushed by the tyre of the trolley. Unfortunately, he died due to injuries sustained in the accident. That is how the case was born.

2. Also, an FIR bearing No. 86 dated 12.02.2016, in this regard, was registered at Police Station Jhajjar under Sections 279 and 304-A IPC on a statement made by complainant Ashwani, who was an eye-witness and would later depose in favour of the claimant i.e. the mother of the deceased as PW-2 to support the reconstruction of the incident in the Tribunal by oral testimony of events which lead to the untimely death of Jitender in a fatal motor accident in the prime of youth aged about 27 years as per the postmortem report.

3. Though there was no definite proof of income of the deceased, but the deceased appeared to hold the qualification of an ITI Diploma certificate (Ex.P2) with the National Trade Certificate (Ex.P3) to boot. The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Jhajjar assessed the monthly income at Rs.7000/- per month, a sum which I hold does not warrant interference as that would be also the approximate to the minimum wages fixed for manual work per month in the year of death. The multiplier of 17 has been applied with the net income assessed at Rs. 84,000/- (7000x12) out of which half was deducted by the Tribunal as personal expenses of the deceased in relation to his assumed income relying upon the Supreme Court ruling in Sarla Verma (Smt.) & others v. Delhi Transport Corporation & another, (2009) 6 SCC 121, which comes to Rs. 42,000/- standardizing compensation packages.

4. I do not think that the Tribunal committed any patent illegality in reducing net income by half and not? 3rd during the approximate social and economic status of the family at the time of death where there was only one claimant, the mother, leading a rural life in her son's avocation as adjunct help to a brick-kiln and loading of bricks on the tractor trolley as is suggested from the evidence by the opposite parties trying to deny the claim.

5. In these circumstances as far as income is concerned, the deceased may not have had to spend more than half of his income on himself with no profligate spending or rural social milieu he was accustomed and born into and therefore the deduction is in order.

6. Further, the Tribunal has awarded Rs. 1 lakh for loss of old age support to the mother, which is in line with Rajesh v. Rajbir Singh, (2013) 9 SCC 54 and is not liable to be interfered with.

7. A sum of Rs. 25,000/- was given towards funeral and transportation expenses, which also is in order.

8. The liability to pay the awarded compensation has been fastened on the appellant-Insurance Company and the contention that the driving license may have been valid for driving tractor, but at the time of incident, the tractor was attached with a trolley and, therefore, a license for Light Transport Vehicle was required under the Act as deposed by RW-1 Vivek Kumar, Legal Retainer, while appearing on behalf of the Insurance Company as its witness does not appeal to me to make only the owner and driver of the vehicle i.e. tractor as liable.

9. The Tribunal has not agreed to this argument that the tractor trolley was being used for commercial purposes for supply of bricks. The trolley has no separate license and the death occurred as a result of fall while sitting on the tractor which has nothing to do with the trolley except to hook them on. The license was valid till 06.03.2023 for scooter, motorcycle, car jeep and tractor.

10. The version in the FIR was