1 2025:CGHC:49403 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR MAC No. 798 of 2023 1 - Smt. Savita Binjhwar, Wife Of Late Pardeshi Lal Bhihwar, Aged About 30 Years, Resident Of Village Rode, Gram Panchayat- Rode, Tahsil Podi Uproda, District Korba, Chhattisgarh. 2 - Smt Bed Kunwar, Wife Of Ghuran Singh, Aged About 57 Years, Resident Of Village Rode, Gram Panchayat- Rode, Tahsil Podi Uproda, District Korba, Chhattisgarh. 3 - Ghuran Singh, Son Of Nandi Binjhwar, Aged About 60 Years, Resident Of Village Rode, Gram Panchayat- Rode, Tahsil Podi Uproda, District Korba, Chhattisgarh. 4 - Krish Binjhwar, Son Of Late Pardeshi Binjhwaar, Aged About 7 Years, Minor Through Natural Guardian Mother Namely Smt.Savita Binjhwar, Wife Of Late Pardeshi Lal Binjhwar, Aged About 30 Years, Resident Of Village Rode, Gram Panchayat- Rode, Tahsil Podi Uproda, District Korba, Chhattisgarh. 5 – Purab, Son Of Late Pardeshi Binjhwar, Aged About 5 Years, Minor Through Natural Guardian Mother Namely Smt. Savita ASHOK SAHU Digitally signed by ASHOK SAHU Date: 2025.09.26 14:01:33 +0530 2 Binjhwar, Wife Of Late Pardeshi Lal Binjhwar, Aged About 30 Years, Resident Of Village Rode, Gram Panchayat- Rode, Tahsil Podi Uproda, District Korba, Chhattisgarh. ... Appellants versus 1 - Kabilash Yadav, Son Of Bhuneshwar Yadav, Aged About 40 Years, Resident Of Village Durti, P.S. Pratappur, Tahsil Pratappur, District Surajpur, Chhattisgarh. (Driver) 2 - Vinod Kumar Gupta (Deleted) As Per Hon'ble Court Order Dated 22-07-2025 & 05-08-2025 3 - Senior Manager, Shriram General Insurance Company Ltd. Through Branch Manager, Shriram Insurance Company Ltd. Branch Office- Fourth Floor, Near Maruti Height Sky Auto Mobile, G.E. Road, Mahoba Bazar, Raipur, Tahsil And District Raipur Chhattisgarh. (Insurer) 4 - Smt. Samariya Gond, Wife Of Late Basant Lal Gond, Aged About 24 Years, Resident Of Village Rode, Gram Panchayat Rode, Tahsil Podiuproda, District Korba, Chhattisgarh. 5 - Ful Bai Gond, W/o. Shri Amrit Lal, Aged About 57 Years, Resident Of Village Rode, Gram Panchayat Rode, Tahsil Podiuproda, District Korba, Chhattisgarh. 6 - Amritlal, Son Of Shri Mohan Gond, Aged About 61 Years, Resident Of Village Rode, Gram Panchayat Rode, Tahsil Podiuproda, District Korba, Chhattisgarh. 3 7 - Megma H.D.I. General Insurance Company Ltd. Megma House, 24 Park Gali, Kolkata 700016, Through Branch Manager, Megma, H.D.I. General Insurance Company Ltd. Branch Office-102, Indira Commercial Complex, Behind Hotel Natraj, T.P. Nagar, Korba, Tahsil And District Korba, Chhattisgarh. ... Respondents For Appellants : Mr. P. Acharya, Advocate For Respondent No.3 : Mr. P.R.Patankar, Advocate For Respondent No.4 to 6 : Mr. P.K.Tulsyan, Advocate For Respondent No.7 : Ms. Harneet Kaur, Advocate on behalf of Mr. Sourabh Shrama, Advocate (Single Bench) Hon'ble Shri Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal Judgment on Board 26.09.2025 1. This appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 has been preferred by the appellants/ claimants seeking enhancement of the amount of compensation, challenging the impugned award dated 03.01.2023 passed by learned Second Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Katghora, District Korba in M.A.C.C. No. 103/2019, by which the claim application of the claimants has been allowed and an amount of Rs. 14,23,792/- has been awarded as compensation to the 4 claimants for the death of Pardeshi Lal Binjhwar, aged about 28 years, at the time of incident. 2. Appellants, who are wife, mother, father & two sons of deceased Pardeshi Lal Binjhwar filed an application under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (for brevity “Claims Tribunal”) seeking compensation to the tune of Rs. 50,00,000/- pleading therein that on the date of accident, deceased Pardeshi Lal Binjhwar was aged about 28 years, working as Raj Mistri and was a sole bread earner of the family and on account of his untimely death in the accident, the appellants have suffered economical and psychological difficulties. 3. Learned Claims Tribunal, upon appreciation of pleadings and evidence placed on record by respective parties, held that deceased Pardeshi Lal Binjhwar died in the accident arising out of rash & negligent driving of the offending vehicle driven by the respondent No.1 and insured by the respondent No.3. Breach of conditions of insurance policy was not found to be proved and after calculating the amount of compensation, the learned Claims Tribunal awarded Rs. 14,23,792/- as total compensation with interest @ 6% per annum from the date of filing of claim application. 5 4. Mr. P. Acharya, learned counsel for the appellants, would submit that the learned Claims Tribunal has awarded very meager amount, as the Claims Tribunal erred in assessing income of deceased as Rs.5,760/- per month, which should be Rs.8,000/- as per Chhattisgarh Minimum Wages Notification issued by the office of the Labour Commissioner, Chhattisgarh for the unskilled labour. Therefore, the instant appeal be allowed and the amount of compensation awarded by the learned Claims Tribunal may be enhanced suitably. 5. Mr. P.R.Patankar, Mr. P.K.Tulsyan & Ms. Harneet Kaur, learned counsels appearing for the respective respondents would support the impugned award and submit that amount of compensation awarded by the learned Claims Tribunal is just and proper, which does not call for any interference. 6. I have heard learned counsel for the parties, considered their rival submissions made herein-above and gone through the records minutely. 7. Learned Claims Tribunal has assessed the monthly income of deceased Pardeshi Lal Binjhwar to be Rs. 5,760/- per month, however, in the opinion of this Court, as per the Chhattisgarh Minimum Wages Notification issued by the office of Labour Commissioner, Chhattisgarh, the monthly 6 income of the deceased should be Rs.8,000/- per month, which comes to Rs. 96,000/- per annum. 8. Thus, in light of the aforesaid discussion and in light of the judgments of the Supreme Court rendered in the matters of National Insurance Company Ltd. V. Pranay Sethi 1, Sarla Verma & Ors. Vs. Delhi Transport Corporation & Ors2 and Magma General Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Nanu Ram @ Chuhru Ram & Ors 3 , this Court is computing the compensation as below:- Heads Compensation awarded by the Tribunal Compensation awarded by this Court Income as per minimum wages Rs. 5,760 x 12 = Rs. 69,120/- Rs. 8000 x 12 = Rs. 96,000/- Add future prospects @ 40% Rs. 69,120 + Rs. 27,648 = Rs. 96,768/- Rs. 96,000 + Rs. 38,400 = Rs. 1,34,400/- Deduction of 1/4 towards personal expenses Rs. 96,768 – 24,192 = Rs. 72,576 Rs. 1,34,400 – 33,600 = Rs. 1,00,800/- Multiplier of 17 Rs. 72,576 x 17 = Rs. 12,33,792/- Rs. 1,00,800 x 17 = Rs. 17,13,600/- For Funeral Expenses Rs. 15,000/- Rs. 15,000/- For Loss of Estate Rs. 15,000/- Rs. 15,000/- 1 (2017) 16 SCC 680 2 (2009) 6 SCC 121 3 (2018) 18 SCC 130 7 For Loss of Consortium to Claimants Rs. 40,000 x 4 = Rs. 1,60,000/- Rs. 44,000 x 5 = Rs. 2,20,000/- Total Rs. 14,23,792/- Rs. 19,63,600/- 9. In view of the aforesaid analysis, the amount of compensation of Rs. 14,23,792/- awarded by the Claims Tribunal is enhanced to Rs. 19,63,600/-. Hence, after deducting the amount of Rs. 14,23,792/-, the appellants are entitled for an additional amount of Rs. 5,39,808/-. The liability of the respondents is as per the award of the Claims Tribunal and concerned respondents are directed to deposit the amount of compensation as enhanced by this Court within a period of 3 months. The additional amount of compensation shall carry interest @ 6% per annum from the date of filing of claim application before the Tribunal till its realization. Rest of the conditions of the impugned award shall remain intact. 10. Accordingly, this appeal is partly allowed and the impugned award is modified to the extent as indicated herein-above. Sd/- (Sanjay K. Agrawal) Judge Ashok