Supreme Court: Claimant must adduce evidence to prove quantum of depletion of income on account of payment for engaging managers

Further, the Court in New India Assurance opined that though a court may be required to account for the depletion in the net income accruing from the assets of the deceased on account of payments for engaging managers, evidence must be adduced to compute the depletion. The Court held:

In the normal course the claimants are expected to adduce evidence as to what would be the quantum of depletion in the income from the abovementioned asset on account of the abovementioned factors.

In the present case, no evidence was adduced by the Appellants at any stage of the proceedings to assist in the computation of the depletion in the net income which accrues to the deceased. The judgment of this Court in New India Assurance does not help the case of the Appellants. {Para 11}

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Civil Appeal Nos. 9196-97 of 2019.

Decided On: 09.12.2019

Malarvizhi and Ors. Vs. United India Insurance Company Limited and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud and Hrishikesh Roy, JJ.

Author: Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, J.

Citation:  (2020) 4 SCC 228, MANU/SC/1700/2019.

Read full Judgment here: Click here.

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Supreme Court: Depreciation can not be treated as tangible income for calculation of annual income in a claim before the MACT.

It was then contended by Mr. Jayanth Muth Raj that this Court must add to the annual income of the deceased, depreciation costs on capital assets to the amounts of Rs. 21,642, 74,685 and 7,701 as reflected in the tax return for the assessment year 1997-1998. We are unable to accede to this contention. Depreciation is the deduction allowed for the decline in the real value of tangible or intangible assets over its useful life. Its value varies over time and cannot amount to tangible income for the purposes of computing annual income in a claim before the MACT. (Para 12)

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Civil Appeal Nos. 9196-97 of 2019.

Decided On: 09.12.2019

Malarvizhi and Ors. Vs. United India Insurance Company Limited and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud and Hrishikesh Roy, JJ.

Author: Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, J.

Citation:  (2020) 4 SCC 228, MANU/SC/1700/2019.

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Whether any concession in law made by Advocate is binding on party?

 Any concession in law made in this regard by either counsel would not bind the parties, as it is legally settled that advocates cannot throwaway legal rights or enter into arrangements

contrary to law

REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CIVIL APPEAL NOS.1920 of 2021

Kirti & Anr. Vs  Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. 

Author: Surya Kant, J:

Dated: January 05, 2021.

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Whether release of compensation under motor accident claim can be refused to a woman on ground that she has failed to produce certificate of beauty parlour?

 From a perusal of the award, it appears that one of the claimant named as Arti daughter of Suraj Singh has been awarded one lac rupees towards compensation which had been deposited in a fixed deposit account and is lying with the court below.

6. The release application has been filed with the assertion that the petitioner/plaintiff needs the money for setting up her own beauty parlour as she has sufficient experience of such job. The court below has rejected the release application on two grounds. Firstly that no certificate of having done a course of beauty parlour has been filed by the applicant. Secondly that there is a doubt with regard to the identity of the applicant so as to relate her from the claimant in M.A.C.P. Case no. 592 of 2013.

7. In so far as the first ground for rejection of the application is concerned, suffice it to note that the court below could not have rejected the release application on the ground that no certificate was produced by the applicant, in as much as, the course of beauty parlour is not a certified course. It is a course which is in the nature of self employment and no court can take objection to the applicant's prayer to seek money for her need to get self employed.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF ALLAHABAD

Writ C No. 39076 of 2018

Decided On: 07.01.2019

 Arti  Vs. Additional District Judge/Fast Track Court No. 1, Muzaffarnagar and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

Sunita Agarwal, J.

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Enhancement of compensation to self employed person how to be granted?

We find it extremely difficult to fathom any rationale for the observation made in paragraph 24 of the judgment in Sarla Verma’s case that where the deceased was self-employed or was on a fixed salary without provision for annual increment, etc., the Courts will usually take only the actual income at the time of death and a departure from this rule should be made only in rare and exceptional cases involving special circumstances. In our view, it will be naïve to say that the wages or total emoluments/income of a person who is self-employed or who is employed on a fixed salary without provision for annual increment, etc., would remain the same throughout his life. The rise in the cost of living affects everyone across the board. It does not make any distinction between rich and poor. As a matter of fact, the effect of rise in prices which directly impacts the cost of living is minimal on the rich and maximum on those who are self- employed or who get fixed income/emoluments. They are the worst affected people. Therefore, they put extra efforts to generate additional income necessary for sustaining their families. The salaries of those employed under the Central and State Governments and their agencies/instrumentalities have been revised from time to time to provide a cushion against the rising prices and provisions have been made for providing security to the families of the deceased employees. The salaries of those employed in private sectors have also increased manifold. Till about two decades ago, nobody could have imagined that salary of Class IV employee of the Government would be in five figures and total emoluments of those in higher echelons of service will cross the figure of rupees one lac. Although, the wages/income of those employed in unorganized sectors has not registered a corresponding increase and has not kept pace with the increase in the salaries of the Government employees and those employed in private sectors but it cannot be denied that there has been incremental enhancement in the income of those who are self-employed and even those engaged on daily basis, monthly basis or even seasonal basis. We can take judicial notice of the fact that with a view to meet the challenges posed by high cost of living, the persons falling in the latter category periodically increase the cost of their labour. In this context, it may be useful to give an example of a tailor who earns his livelihood by stitching cloths. If the cost of living increases and the prices of essentials go up, it is but natural for him to increase the cost of his labour. So will be the cases of ordinary skilled and unskilled labour, like, barber, blacksmith, cobbler, mason etc. Therefore, we do not think that while making the observations in the last three lines of paragraph 24 of Sarla Verma’s judgment, the Court had intended to lay down an absolute rule that there will be no addition in the income of a person who is self-employed or who is paid fixed wages. Rather, it would be reasonable to say that a person who is self-employed or is engaged on fixed wages will also get 30 per cent increase in his total income over a period of time and if he / she becomes victim of accident then the same formula deserves to be applied for calculating the amount of compensation.

Supreme Court of India

Santosh Devi vs National Insurance Co.Ltd.& Ors on 23 April, 2012

Bench: G.S. Singhvi, Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya

Citation;2012(3) T.A.C 1 SC

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