On December 20, 2022, the Punjab and Haryana High Court observed that the provident fund, pension, insurance, and similarly any cash, bank balance, shares, fixed deposits, etc. were all a 'pecuniary advantage' receivable by the heirs on account of one's death but all these had no correlation with the amount receivable under a statute occasioned only on account of accidental death. Such an amount would not come within the periphery of the Motor Vehicles Act to be termed as a 'pecuniary advantage' liable for deduction.
Brief Facts:
The deceased Gurmail Singh met with an accident on 18.10.2016. He was a retired Lance Naik from the Indian Army and was getting pension at the time of his death. He had applied in the Soldier Welfare Office, Ferozepur, and also PRTC seeking employment as a driver. The respondents/claimants filed a claim petition under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, claiming compensation on account of his death. At the time of his death, as per the finding of the Tribunal, the pension drawn by the deceased was 17,607/- Rupees, which was rounded off to 17,610/- Rupees. It was also held that the deceased was Class-I by DNDT Trade, equivalent to civil trade of driver bus/truck as per the National Council of Training for Vocational Trades/National Apprentice Certificate. Since he had proper training for the post of driver, his monthly income was assessed as that of a skilled laborer as 8,775/- Rupees per month. By adding the amount of pension, his total monthly income was assessed to be 26,385/- Rupees. As the deceased was 37 years of age, an addition of 40% of the assessed
Income was awarded as future prospects. By applying a multiplier of 15, and deducting 1/3rd of the assessed income towards personal living expenses, total compensation of 42,69,450/- Rupees was awarded to the respondents. Hence, an appeal was filed against the award passed by Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Chandigarh.
Contentions of the Appellant:
The counsel for the appellant submitted that the Tribunal wrongly assessed the monthly income of the deceased by adding the amount of pension payable to him as retired Lance Naik from the Indian Army. He further submitted that the amount of pension needed to be deducted from his monthly income for assessing the amount of compensation, otherwise it would be an undue enrichment.
Contentions of the Respondents:
The counsel representing the respondents submitted that the award was as per the settled law, and the amount of pension had been rightly included as part of the deceased's income.
Observations of the Court:
The Hon’ble court observed that the pension was earned by the deceased by rendering service in the Indian Army, which had no concern with the Act of 1988 or the claim raised thereunder. The court added that “besides, whatever he would have earned in life post-retirement, would have been in addition to the pension he was drawing. "
The court while referring to the issue of “whether the amount of pension, provident fund and insurance receivable by the claimants could be termed as a pecuniary advantage for awarding compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988,”, referred to the Judgement in the case of Halen C. Rebello v. Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, and Vimal Kanwar & others v. Kishore Dan and others.
The Decision of the Court:
The appeal was dismissed and it was held that the Tribunal did not commit any illegality in calculating the deceased's income by adding the amount of pension.
Case Title: United India Insurance Company Limited Vs. Jaswinder Kaur @ Bakhshis Kaur (now deceased) through her LRs and others
Coram: Hon’ble Ms. Justice Nidhi Gupta
Case No.- FAO No.5984 of 2019 (O&M)
Advocate for Appellant: Mr. Ram Avtar
Advocate for Respondent No. 1: Mr. Ashwani Arora
Read Judgement ;
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