Supreme Court: MACT can rely on salary certificate and pay slip of deceased while computing compensation even though the person issued it is not examined

Applying the same reasoning as in the case of Rajwati @ Rajjo and Ors. v. United India Insurance Co. Ltd. and Ors. (connected Civil Appeal No. 8179 of 2022), we are of the opinion that the Tribunal has correctly determined the deceased's monthly income as Rs. 11,225/- while placing reliance on documentary evidence adduced in this regard, viz., the salary certificate (Exhibit-17) and pay slip (Exhibit-18), as well as the statements of the deceased's wife and his co-workers. We do not agree with the view taken by the High Court while holding that since the person issuing the two aforementioned documents was not examined before the Tribunal the income of the deceased was assessed at Rs. 4,836/- per month in view of the minimum wages fixed by the State at the relevant time. {Para 29}

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Civil Appeal No. 8179 of 2022 

Decided On: 09.12.2022

Rajwati and Ors. Vs. United India Insurance Company Ltd. and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

Krishna Murari and S. Ravindra Bhat, JJ.

Author: Krishna Murari, J.

Citation: MANU/SC/1595/2022

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How to assess income of deceased in motor accident claim petition if his salary certificate is not available?

It is the specific case of the claimants that the deceased was possessing heavy vehicle driving licence and was earning Rs.15000/­ per month. Possessing such licence and driving of heavy vehicle on the date of accident is proved from the evidence on record. Though the wife of the deceased has categorically deposed as AW­1 that her husband Shivpal was earning Rs.15000/­ per month, same was not considered only on the ground that salary certificate was not filed. The Tribunal has fixed the monthly income of the deceased by adopting minimum wage notified for the skilled labour in the year 2016. In absence of salary certificate the minimum wage notification can be a yardstick but at the same time cannot be an absolute one to fix the income of the deceased. In absence of documentary evidence on record some amount of guesswork is required to be done. But at the same time the guesswork for assessing the income of the deceased should not be totally detached from reality. Merely because claimants were unable to produce documentary evidence to show the monthly income of Shivpal, same does not justify adoption of lowest tier of minimum wage while computing the income. There is no reason to discard the oral evidence of the wife of the deceased who has deposed that late Shivpal was earning around Rs.15000/­ per month. {Para 10}

                              Supreme Court

JUSTICE R. Subhash Reddy JUSTICE Hrishikesh Roy

Chandra @ Chanda @ Chandraram & Anr. Vs. Mukesh Kumar Yadav & Ors.

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 6152 OF 2021

1st October 2021

Author: R. Subhash Reddy, J.

Citation:  2021 ALL SCR 2196,(2022) 1 SCC 198.

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Whether family court can grant maintenance to wife considering minimum wage disregarding salary certificate?

The petitioner, in the instant case, is 8th class pass and is working as a driver with Simons Wood (OPC) Pvt. Ltd. and as per the salary certificate issued by his employer he is drawing a salary of Rs. 11,000/- per month. The Ld. Trial Court has fixed the maintenance to be granted to the respondent as Rs. 4500/- per month w.e.f. 29.11.2017 on the basis of Minimum Wages Act ignoring the salary certificate given by the employer of the petitioner. I see no infirmity in the Ld. Family Judge ignoring the salary certificate produced by the petitioner in order to prove his salary and relying on the Minimum Wages Act for the purpose of the category in which the petitioner falls. On the basis of the Minimum Wages Act, the Ld. Family Court has assessed the income of the petitioner as Rs. 14,000/- per month and granted a sum of Rs. 4500/- per month as maintenance to the respondent relying upon Annurita Vohra V. Sandeep Vohra, MANU/DE/0166/2004 : 110 (2004) DLT 546, and divided the family cake i.e., income of the petitioner into 3 parts out of those 3 parts he gave 2 parts of the salary of the petitioner to him and one part to the respondent. 

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI

Crl. Rev. P. 694/2019 and Crl. M.A. 12760/2019

Decided On: 01.06.2020

 Sudhir Kumar  Vs.  Urmila

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

Rajnish Bhatnagar, J.

Citation: MANU/DE/1139/2020

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Whether court can assess income of deceased for computation of compensation on basis of Income tax return?

REPORTABLE

We have given our anxious consideration to this

contention. There is no doubt that if the salary certificate is taken into

account the salary of the deceased should be taken as Rs. 1,06,176/-

since the gross salary was

Rs.8848 per month. That, however, in our view does not mean that

the income of the deceased as stated in the Income Tax return should

be totally ignored. It is not possible to agree with the observation of

the Tribunal that it was necessary for the claimants to “explain the said

contradiction” between two figures of income. The claimants had led

reliable evidence that the deceased had returned an income of Rs.

2,42,606/- for the assessment year 2004-05. This piece of evidence

has not been discredited. Indeed, it was possible that the deceased

had income from other sources also. There is nothing in the law which

requires the Tribunal to assess the income of the deceased only on the

basis of a salary certificate for arriving at a just and fair compensation

to be paid to the claimants for the loss of life.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CIVIL) Nos. 7104-7105 OF

2016

UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO. LTD.

Versus

INDIRO DEVI & ORS.

Coram:S.A. BOBDE, J.

Dated:JULY 03, 2018

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