Point of Law: Accident claim - Claimant living in their respective matrimonial home - Not dependent and not entitled for compensation.

ORDER :

1. By means of filing this appeal, the insurance company has challenged the award dated 20.04.2019 passed by MAC Tribunal (No. 5) West Tripura, Agartala in T.S. (MAC) No. 120 of 2017.

2. The claim petition arose out of the death of Ashutosh Das, a permanent employee of Tripura Jute Mills Limited, who died in a road traffic accident at Agartala on 19.05.2017 leaving behind his wife, 03 sons and 03 daughters.

3. Prayers made by the appellant insurer in the memo of appeal are as under:

“Under the circumstances stated above, it is most humbly prayed that Your Lordship would be kind enough to:

(a) Admit the appeal.

(b) Call for the record of T.S. (MAC) No. 120 of 2017 from the then Ld. Member, Sri. S. Bhattacharjee, Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Court No. 5, West Tripura District, Agartala.

(c) Issue Notice upon the respondents.

And

After hearing both the parties Hon’ble Court would be pleased enough after setting aside the impugned Award dated 20.04.2019 kindly modify the direction of the impugned Award to the effect firstly, that number of dependent on the income of the deceased be one(1) instead of seven (7) and thus 1/3rd instead of 1/5th of the monthly income be deducted as personal expenses, secondly 10% of the monthly salary would be deducted as income tax in order to assess actual monthly income of the deceased and thirdly, no amount as future prospect would be added with the monthly income since the deceased was above 60 years of age at the time of death.

And

For this act of kindness the applicant shall ever pray.”

4. The insurer has, thus, assailed the impugned award raising the following issues:

(i) Since the claimants other than the wife of the deceased were not dependent family members of the deceased, 1/5th deduction from the income of the deceased for personal and living expenses made by the Tribunal for the purpose of assessing loss of dependency was erroneous. Wife of the deceased being his only dependent family member, there would be 1/3rd deduction as per the judgment of the Supreme Court in Sarla Verma and Others vs. Delhi Transport Corporation and Another, (2009) 6 SCC 121.

(ii) Addition of 15% of the actual salary to the income of the deceased towards future prospect was erroneous because the deceased was above 60 years of age and as per the decision of the Apex Court in the case of National Insurance Company vs. Pranay Sethi, (2017) 16 SCC 680, there would be no such deduction where the deceased exceeded 60 years of age.

(iii) Tribunal should have assessed his annual income after deducting 10% of the income for income tax.

5. In view of the limited grounds of appeal, this court will not go into other issues save and except the issues raised by the insurer appellant.

6. Factual background of the case is that on 18.05.2017, the deceased after visiting his ailing daughter-in-law in Asha nursing home at Palace compound, Agartala was returning home at around 8.30 p.m. On his way, he was hit by the offending motor bike carrying Registration No. TR-01-0568. As a result, he sustained grievous injuries. Despite treatment in AGMC and GBP Hospital at Agartala, he succumbed to his injuries at around 2.30 a.m. on the following day.

7. His wife, 3 sons and 3 daughters being claimants filed a claim petition at the MAC Tribunal (No. 5), West Tripura Judicial District at Agartala claiming compensation to the tune of Rs. 25 lakhs. On the basis of the pleadings of the parties, the Tribunal framed issues and recorded the evidence adduced by the parties and determined the compensation payble to the claimant at Rs. 27,76,160/- with 9% annual interest on the said amount w.e.f. the date of filing of the claim petition till payment and passed the following order:

“ORDER:

17. In the result, claim is awarded in following terms:-

(i) Claimant petitioners are entitled to get the award of Rs. 27,76,160/- (Twenty Seven Lacs Seventy Six thousand one hundred sixty) only with 9% Simple interest per annum from the date of registration of claim i.e. w.e.f