The court applied prevailing minimum wage rates to enhance the deceased's notional income and maintained the deduction for contributory negligence.

SANJAY VASHISTH, J.

CM-7367-CII-2023

i. Prayer in this civil miscellaneous application is for condoning the delay of 21 days in filing the present appeal.

ii. Notice of this application was issued.

iii. After hearing learned counsel for the parties and in view of the grounds mentioned in the application, the delay of 21 days in filing the appeal is hereby condoned.

Civil Misc. application stands disposed of.

FAO-1927-2023 (O&M)

1. The present appeal has been filed by the appellants/claimants (hereinafter referred as ‘claimants’) in MACT Case No. 70 registered on 26.05.2021, for modification of award dated 16.11.2022, passed by Ld. Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Palwal (hereinafter referred to as ‘Ld. Tribunal’) by way of seeking enhancement of amount of compensation, on account of death of ‘Manoj @ Anmol’ in a motor vehicular accident.

2. Claimants in the MACT case were Smt. Neeta (mother of deceased), Kumar Pal (father of deceased) and Mohit Sharma (brother of deceased). In the present appeal before this Court, mother and father of the deceased, are appellants No.1 & 2, respectively, while brother of deceased has been arrayed as a proforma respondent i.e. respondent No.4.

3. Briefly stated facts of the case are that on 24.02.2021, deceased along with his brother Mohit were going to Faridabad for their personal work. At around 11:00 p.m., they were crossing the service road, and Manoj @ Anmol was going ahead of his brother Mohit, when suddenly, a motorcycle bearing Registration No. HR-50H-3805 being driven in a rash and negligent manner at a very high speed, hit the deceased due to which he suffered multiple injuries and died on the spot.

For the said accident, FIR No.47 dated 25.02.2021 was registered against the Respondent No. 1 at Police Station, Hodal.

4. Claimants filed a claim petition under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 for seeking compensation to the tune of Rs. 50,00,000/- (Fifty lakhs). However, after going through the record, appreciating the evidence, examining the witnesses, and hearing the arguments of both the sides, Ld. Tribunal assessed the age of the deceased as 25 years; his monthly income as Rs.9,000/-; applied the multiplier of 18; deducted half of his income on account of monthly expenses; provided a lump sum amount of Rs. 70,000/- on account of funeral expenses, loss of estate and loss of consortium to petitioner No. 1; Rs. 40,000/- as consortium to petitioner No. 2 and deducted 25% on account of contributory negligence. Accordingly, Learned Tribunal awarded an amount of compensation to the claimants to the tune of Rs.11,03,100/- payable by respondents severally and jointly with interest @6% per annum from the date of filing of the petition till its actual realization.

5. Appellants/claimants have filed the present petition seeking enhancement of the compensation as awarded by the Ld. Tribunal.

6. While addressing arguments, Counsel representing the appellants asserts that there was a substantial error on the part of the Learned Tribunal in its assessment of the deceased's income. It is noteworthy that the deceased was self-employed and was engaged in doing agriculturist work and dairy farming was earning Rs. 50,000/- per month. Further submits that even if the said argument is not accepted, even then the notional income of the deceased has been assessed to be that of an ‘unskilled labourer’ that too on the lower side.

7. Learned Counsel for the appellants further states that Ld. Tribunal has erred in holding contributory negligence of the deceased in the said accident as deceased was totally cautious and careful while crossing the road and was followed by his brother, when suddenly the offending motorcycle being driven in a rash and negligent manner struck the deceased that led to fatal injuries. Thus, deduction of 25% on account of contributory negligence of the deceased in the accident in question as he