The Oriental Insurance Co Ltd v. Rajpal Sharma & Ors.

1. The present appeal seeks to assail the award dated 04.12.2018 passed by the learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (Central), Tis Hazari Court, New Delhi in MACT No. 356887/2016. Vide the impugned award, the learned tribunal has awarded a compensation of Rs. 14,80,000/- in favour of the respondent along with interest @ 9% per annum.

2. Learned counsel for the appellant submits that the compensation awarded by the learned Tribunal is highly exorbitant as the learned Tribunal has wrongly applied the minimum wage of a skilled workman to determine the compensation without appreciating the fact that the deceased was only a student of DPharma, to whom these minimum wages could not be made applicable. He further submits that even otherwise, the learned Tribunal erred in awarding an amount of Rs. 1,00,000/- (wrongly recorded as Rs. 80,000/- in para 14 of the impugned award), towards loss of love and affection even though no amount was payable under this head.

3. On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondents, who has also preferred a cross appeal submits that once the deceased was a student of DPharma, he had a bright future and would have had the potential to earn much more and therefore, the learned Tribunal, instead of applying the minimum wages of a skilled workman, ought to have taken his potential income, atleast at Rs. 27,600/-. In support of his plea, he seeks to place reliance on a decision of this Court in MAC APP No. 126/18 and MAC APP No. 376/17 titled Upender Shastri vs. Bharti Axa General Insurance Company Limited, wherein while dealing with a case of the death of a student pursuing graduation, this Court had considered his earning capacity as Rs.27,600/- per month.

4. In so far as the appellant’s challenge to the award of compensation of Rs. 1,00,000/- towards loss of love and affection is concerned, he fairly concedes that no amount was payable towards this head. He, however, submits that the compensation of Rs. 80,000/- awarded for loss of consortium (wrongly recorded as Rs. One Lakh in para no. 14 of award) is inadequate and contends that a sum of Rs. 1,20,000/- was payable under this head.

5. In response, learned counsel for the appellant is not in a position to dispute that taking into account that there were three claimants, each of whom was entitled to receive a sum of Rs. 40,000/- as compensation for loss of consortium and therefore, a sum of Rs. 1,20,000/- would be payable under the head of compensation for loss of consortium.

6. I have considered the submissions of the learned counsel for the parties and perused the record. In the light of the stand taken by the parties, it is evident that they are ad-idem that no amount was payable towards compensation for loss of love and affection as also that the amount payable towards loss of consortium requires to be increased to Rs. 1,20,000/-. Now coming to the appellant’s plea that the learned Tribunal erred in taking into account, the minimum wages of a skilled workman to determine the compensation. Having given my thoughtful consideration to the said plea, I am of the view that the deceased was undergoing a specialised technical course of DPharma, and therefore he, infact had the potential of earning much more than the minimum monthly wages of Rs. 8,397.04/- payable to a skilled workman. In fact, as rightly urged by the learned counsel for the respondents, this Court, in the case of Upender Shastri (supra), had considered the potential income of a student who was undergoing graduation at Rs. 27,600/-. In these circumstances, I see absolutely no reason to interfere with this finding of the learned tribunal in awarding compensation by taking into account the minimum wages of a skilled workman.

7. The appeal along with pending applications is, accordingly, disposed of by modifying the impugned award to the extent that the compensation for the loss of love and affection will be treated as NIL but compensation for loss of consortium will stand enhanced from Rs. 80,000/- to Rs. 1,20,000/-. Consequently, the total compensation payable to the respondent will now stand reduced to Rs. 14,20,000/-.

8. Since the appellant has already deposited the awarded amount with the learned Tribunal, the tribunal is directed to refund the differential sum of Rs. 60,000/- along with accrued interest to the respondents. Furthermore, taking into account that more than 4 years have been lapsed since the passing of the impugned award, the learned tribunal is directed to release the entire awarded amount along with accrued interest in favour of the respondent within a period of 4 weeks by remitting the same in their respective bank accounts, details, thereof will be provided by the learned counsel for the respondent to the learned tribunal by way of an appropriate application.

9. The Registry is also directed to refund the statutory amount of Rs. 25,000/- paid by the appellant along with accrued interest thereon.

JUDGE JANUARY 11, 2023