Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 – Compensation – Enhancement – Parents of the appellants met with an accident resulting in their death while travelling in a vehicle after the bus belonging to respondent no.3 dashed into the said vehicle – Appellants claimed identical compensation for the parents as both were partners in a Mill – Tribunal granted compensation of Rs.58,24,000/- for the father and Rs.93,61,000/- for the mother with interest – High Court reduced the amount of compensation to Rs.26,68,600/- for the father and Rs.19,22,680/- for the mother – Interference with:
Held: Award rendered by the tribunal is well-considered – Merely because the appellants stepped into the shoes of the deceased, by such factum itself, the appellants would not be capable of running the Mill – Lack of experience and maturity, real/expected downfall in the profitability of the firm relevant while considering a claim pertaining to loss of future income/earnings – Notional income fixed by the tribunal of Rs.60,000/- each per month, is much more reasonable – Income Tax Returns reliable evidence to assess the income of a deceased – Between the formula applied by the tribunal vis-a-vis the approach adopted by the High Court, the view of the tribunal rendered in the form of the award satisfies the judicial conscience – High Court’s reasoning militates against settled law – Impugned judgment set aside. [Paras 11, 14]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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