Summary
A 37-year-old homemaker, last employed about three years earlier, died in a Chennai road accident in 2011. The Tribunal fixed her notional income at one-third of her husband's income following Arun Kumar Agrawal, deducted one-third for personal expenses and awarded Rs 36.92 lakh. The Madras High Court instead took her last drawn salary, deducted 50% and reduced the award. The Supreme Court restored the Tribunal's approach: a salary earned three years before death is an unreliable guide for a homemaker's notional income, and Section 168 lets the Tribunal award just compensation on the material before it even if the claimants argued a different basis. One-third deduction was proper as the minor children were dependants; 40% future prospects applies even to notional income; loss of love and affection is subsumed in consortium. Pecuniary loss was refixed at Rs 44.10 lakh.
Issues
- Whether the pecuniary loss from the death of a homemaker who had left employment about three years earlier should be computed on her last drawn salary or notionally as one-third of her surviving husband's income under Arun Kumar Agrawal.
- Whether claimants who argued one basis of computation before the High Court may be awarded compensation on a different, judicially recognised basis supported by the record.
- What deduction for personal expenses applies where the dependants are minor children, whether future prospects are to be added to notional income, and whether loss of love and affection is a separate head from loss of consortium.
Provisions considered
- Section 168, Motor Vehicles Act, 1988The Tribunal must hold an inquiry and award the compensation that appears to it just; its power cannot be confined to the factors pleaded by the claimant, and where the record discloses material justifying a different recognised criterion the adjudicatory forum may apply it. The claim petition had in any event sought computation on one-third of the husband's income. (¶¶ 10, 11, 12)
- Section 166, Motor Vehicles Act, 1988The claim was lodged under Section 166; negligence of the offending vehicle was established and not disturbed on appeal, the dispute being confined to quantum for the deceased. (¶¶ 3, 4)
Held
- The deceased was a homemaker at her death and had not just left a job; a salary drawn about three years earlier was an unreliable guide to her notional income. The methodology in Arun Kumar Agrawal, pegging a non-earning spouse's income at one-third of the earning spouse's income, was the more appropriate and reliable one, and the Tribunal had not indulged in guesswork in applying it on the evidence of the husband's income of Rs 78,700 per month. (¶¶ 7, 9, 12)
- That the appellants urged the last-drawn-salary basis before the High Court did not prevent the Court from computing compensation on a different parameter available on the record; Section 168 contemplates an inquiry into just compensation, and the special leave petition itself raised the question. (¶¶ 10, 12)
- Deduction of one-third for personal expenses under Sarla Verma was proper: even leaving the husband aside, the two minor children aged twelve and three were dependants, 'dependent' not being confined to financial dependence, as they lost their mother's care and guidance. The High Court's unexplained 50% deduction was wrong. Future prospects at 40% must be added, the deceased being under 40, since Rajendra Singh applies future prospects even to notional income. (¶¶ 13, 14, 15)
- Following Satinder Kaur, loss of love and affection is comprehended in loss of consortium and cannot be awarded separately; consortium was fixed at Rs 40,000 for each of the four claimants. Interest at 7.5% was not disturbed given falling bank rates, and the lump sum to the deceased's mother was raised to Rs 2 lakh. (¶¶ 17, 18, 19, 20)
Result
Appeals allowed; pecuniary loss for the death of the deceased refixed at Rs 44,10,000 in place of Rs 30,94,740, consortium at Rs 1,60,000 in place of separate awards for consortium and loss of love and affection, the mother's share raised to Rs 2,00,000; balance payable within two months with interest at 7.5% per annum from the date of the claim petition. No costs.