The court established that incorrect application of multipliers leads to inadequate compensation, and future salary increases must be considered in compensation calculations.

1. This is the appellants / claimants appeal under S.173 of the Motor Vehicles Act (for short 'the Act') seeking enhancement of the award. By way of the instant appeal, the claimants had sought for the modification of the order dated 26.3.2002 passed by the Additional Motor Accidents Tribunal, Bilaspur (for short 'the Tribunal') in Claims Case No.18/01.

2. The facts in nutshell are that the deceased who is the husband of appellant No.1 and father of appellants No.2 to 4 and the son of appellant No.5 met with an accident on 8.2.2001. The accident arose when the deceased Gouri Shankar along with his friend, was going on a bicycle which hit with a truck bearing registration No.MP 26 D 2993 loaded with coal being driven by respondent No.1, owned by respondent No.2 and insured by respondent No.3.

3. It is the claim of the appellants / claimants that at the time of the accident, deceased Gouri Shankar Shyam was working as an Asstt. Teacher under the State Government and was working at a Primary School, Janakpur and his monthly salary at that time of accident was Rs.7,261/-. On account of the death of the deceased Gouri Shankar Shyam, the claimants i.e. the widowed wife, widowed mother and 3 minor children of the deceased had filed a claim application under S.166 of the Act seeking compensation on account of the death of their sole bread earner of the family in the said accident that took place on 8.2.2001.

4. After the pleadings were complete and the evidence was also recorded, the Tribunal vide the impugned award dated 26.3.2002, held that the appellants / claimants are entitled for payment of compensation to the tune of Rs.6,53,300 with interest @ 9% per annum from the date of application till realization.

5. While calculating the compensation, the Tribunal has reached to a conclusion that the compensation payable towards loss of income was Rs.5,93,280. In addition, the appellants / claimants were also granted an amount of Rs.10,000 under each head towards loss of consortium and loss of estate to the widowed wife, Rs.10,000 each to the 3 minor children and the mother i.e. Rs.40,000 and these amounts clubbed together comes to Rs.6,53,280 and rounding it of comes to Rs.6,53,300 which was the total amount awarded by the Tribunal.

6. It is this award which has been assailed by the appellants / claimants.

7. Counsel for the appellants / claimants submits that the impugned judgment deserves to be set aside / modified and the amount of compensation deserves enhancment on more than one ground. Firstly, according to the counsel for the appellants, the multiplier which has been applied by the Tribunal for the purpose of calculating the compensation is definitely not in accordance with the Schedule given in the Act. The admitted position in the case is that the age of the deceased at the time of accident was about 33 years and the multiplier applied by the Tribunal is only 8 whereas under the Act, the multiplier ought to had been at least 16. Secondly, counsel for the appellants submits that the Tribunal has also not properly taken into consideration the future increase in the income of the deceased for the purpose of calculating the compensation. According to him, the deceased at the relevant time, was a Government Teacher and was getting a salary wherein, his basic pay as per the salary certificate issued by the Department was Rs.5,100 with 41 % Dearness Allowance and the gross salary according to salary slip was Rs.7,261. According to him, today the Dearness Allowance of a Government employee is more than 105% and as such, this itself would establish the substantial increase in the future income of the deceased. In addition, counsel for