9911796707
TMI Blog2021 (1) TMI 1123X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of women who are engaged in this activity, whether by choice or as a result of social/cultural norms - Returning to the question of how such notional income of a homemaker is to be calculated, there can be no fixed approach. Grant of compensation, on a pecuniary basis, with respect to a homemaker, is a settled proposition of law - Taking into account the gendered nature of housework, with an overwhelming percentage of women being engaged in the same as compared to men, the fixing of notional income of a homemaker attains special significance. It becomes a recognition of the work, labour and sacrifices of homemakers and a reflection of changing attitudes. It is also in furtherance of our nation's international law obligations and our constitutional vision of social equality and ensuring dignity to all - The granting of future prospects, on the notional income calculated in such cases, is a component of just compensation. - Civil Appeal Nos. 19-20 of 2021 (Arising out of Special Leave Petition (C) Nos. 18728-29 of 2018) - - - Dated:- 5-1-2021 - Surya Kant, S. Abdul Nazeer and N.V. Ramana, JJ. JUDGMENT Authored By : Surya Kant, N.V. Ramana Surya Kant, J. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... teacher at the Pratap Public School in Delhi, but he was unable to substantiate his claim with any documentary evidence. Thus, minimum wage in Delhi was adopted for computation of loss of dependency. An additional 25% income was accounted for future prospects of Poonam, and 1/3rd of Vinod's salary was deducted towards personal expenses. ₹ 2.50 lakhs was given for each deceased as compensation for loss of love and affection, estate, and funeral charges. Thus, the Tribunal awarded a total sum of ₹ 40.71 lakhs for both deceased to the claimants. 6. This computation was challenged by the Respondent-insurer before the High Court, on grounds that the Tribunal had erroneously relied upon the minimum wage as notified by Government of Delhi as there was no proof that the deceased were employed in Delhi. Instead, given their established residence in Haryana, the minimum wage notified for that State ought to be the basis for calculation of loss of dependency. Simultaneously, addition of future prospects as well as non-deduction of personal expenses for Poonam was prayed to be reversed. Further, compensation was sought to be halved on grounds of contributory negligence. A ca ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... upon subsequent increases in minimum wages, the Respondent-insurer too cannot seek benefit of the subsequent death of a dependent during the pendency of legal proceedings. Similarly, any concession in law made in this regard by either counsel would not bind the parties, as it is legally settled that advocates cannot throw-away legal rights or enter into arrangements contrary to law. Director of Elementary Education v. Pramod Kumar Sahoo, (2019) 10 SCC 674, p. 11. 11. Any compensation awarded by a Court ought to be just, reasonable and consequently must undoubtedly be guided by principles of fairness, equity, and good conscience. See, Helen C. Rebello v. Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, (1999) 1 SCC 90, p. 28. Not only did the family of the deceased consist of septuagenarian parents, but there were also two toddler-girls, aged merely 3 and 4 years; each of whom requires exceptional care and expenditure till they reach the stage of self-dependency. Tragically, in addition to the married couple, the negligence of the driver also extinguished the life of the family's third child who was a foetus in Poonam's womb at the time of the accident. Thus, the appropriate ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The argument that no such future prospects ought to be allowed for those with notional income, is both incorrect in law Sunita Tokas v. New India Insurance Co. Ltd. and without merit considering the constant inflation-induced increase in wages. It would be sufficient to quote the observations of this Court in Hem Raj v. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. (2018) 15 SCC 654, as it puts at rest any argument concerning non-payment of future prospects to the deceased in the present case: 7. We are of the view that there cannot be distinction where there is positive evidence of income and where minimum income is determined on guesswork in the facts and circumstances of a case. Both the situations stand at the same footing. Accordingly, in the present case, addition of 40% to the income assessed by the Tribunal is required to be made.. [Emphasis supplied] IV. Other heads and division of compensation 15. Finally, given the lack of arguments on the other heads of funeral charges, loss of estate, love, and affection; there arises no cause of alteration. We similarly see no infirmity with the High Court's adoption of 17 as the age-multiplier, award of 9% interest, calculation of Poon ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... urse that they are studying, their academic proficiency, the family background, etc., to determine and fix what they could earn in the future. [See M.R. Krishna Murthi v. New India Assurance Co. Ltd. 21. One category of non-earning victims that Courts are often called upon to calculate the compensation for are homemakers. The granting of compensation for homemakers on a pecuniary basis, as in the present case, has been considered by this Court earlier on numerous occasions. A three-Judge Bench of this Court in Lata Wadhwa v. State of Bihar, (2001) 8 SCC 197, while dealing with compensation for the victims of a fire during a function, granted compensation to housewives on the basis of the services rendered by them in the house, and their age. This Court, in that case, held as follows: 10. So far as the deceased housewives are concerned, in the absence of any data and as the housewives were not earning any income, attempt has been made to determine the compensation on the basis of services rendered by them to the house. On the basis of the age group of the housewives, appropriate multiplier has been applied, but the estimation of the value of services rendered to the house by t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... They are entitled to adequate compensation in lieu of the loss of gratuitous services rendered by the deceased. The amount payable to the dependants cannot be diminished on the ground that some close relation like a grandmother may volunteer to render some of the services to the family which the deceased was giving earlier. (emphasis supplied) The above pronouncement has been followed by this Court in its recent judgment in Rajendra Singh v. National Insurance Co. Ltd., wherein the notional income of a deceased housewife was calculated for the purposes of granting compensation in a motor accident case. 23. Before discussing this topic further, it is necessary to comment on its gendered nature. In India, according to the 2011 Census, nearly 159.85 million women stated that household work was their main occupation, as compared to only 5.79 million men. 24. In fact, the recently released Report of the National Statistical Office of the Ministry of Statistics Programme Implementation, Government of India called Time Use in India-2019 , which is the first Time Use Survey in the country and collates information from 1,38,799 households for the period January, 2019 to De ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... her guardian and next friend, Ranganathan. However, despite all the above, the conception that housemakers do not work or that they do not add economic value to the household is a problematic idea that has persisted for many years and must be overcome. 27. The concurring opinion in the Arun Kumar Agrawal judgment (supra), has highlighted this bias: 44. This bias is shockingly prevalent in the work of census. In the Census of 2001 it appears that those who are doing household duties like cooking, cleaning of utensils, looking after children, fetching water, collecting firewood have been categorised as non-workers and equated with beggars, prostitutes and prisoners who, according to the census, are not engaged in economically productive work. As a result of such categorisation about 36 crores (367 million) women in India have been classified in the Census of India, 2001 as non-workers and placed in the category of beggars, prostitutes and prisoners. This entire exercise of census operations is done under an Act of Parliament. 28. In fact, this unfortunate silence when it comes to the value of housework has been a problem which was identified as far back as in 1920, when th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... from economic analyses. It is a reflection of changing attitudes and mindsets and of our international law obligations. And, most importantly, it is a step towards the constitutional vision of social equality and ensuring dignity of life to all individuals. 32. Returning to the question of how such notional income of a homemaker is to be calculated, there can be no fixed approach. It is to be understood that in such cases the attempt by the Court is to fix an approximate economic value for all the work that a homemaker does, impossible though that task may be. Courts must keep in mind the idea of awarding just compensation in such cases, looking to the facts and circumstances [See R.K. Malik v. Kiran Pal, (2009) 14 SCC 1]. 33. One method of computing the notional income of a homemaker is by using the formula provided in the Second Schedule to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which has now been omitted by the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, 2019. The Second Schedule provided that the income of a spouse could be calculated as one-third of the income of the earning surviving spouse. This was the method ultimately adopted by the Court in the Arun Kumar Agrawal (supra) case. However, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Jagdish Chand, (2020) 4 SCC 413]. 37. Once notional income has been determined, the question remains as to whether escalation for future prospects should be granted with regard to it. Initially, the awarding of future prospects by this Court was related to the stability of the job held by the victim [See General Manager, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, Trivandrum v. Susamma Thomas (Mrs.), (1994) 2 SCC 176; Sarla Dixit (Smt.) v. Balwant Yadav, (1996) 3 SCC 179]. This focus on the stability of the job of the victim, while awarding future prospects, was continued in the judgment of this Court in Sarla Verma (Smt.) v. Delhi Transport Corporation, (2009) 6 SCC 121 wherein the Court held as follows: 24. In Susamma Thomas [(1994) 2 SCC 176] this Court increased the income by nearly 100%, in Sarla Dixit [ (1996) 3 SCC 179] the income was increased only by 50% and in Abati Bezbaruah [(2003) 3 SCC 148] the income was increased by a mere 7%. In view of the imponderables and uncertainties, we are in favour of adopting as a Rule of thumb, an addition of 50% of actual salary to the actual salary income of the deceased towards future prospects, where the deceased had a permanent jo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ause the price rise does affect a self-employed person; and that apart there is always an incessant effort to enhance one's income for sustenance. The purchasing capacity of a salaried person on permanent job when increases because of grant of increments and pay revision or for some other change in service conditions, there is always a competing attitude in the private sector to enhance the salary to get better efficiency from the employees. Similarly, a person who is self-employed is bound to garner his resources and raise his charges/fees so that he can live with same facilities....Taking into consideration the cumulative factors, namely, passage of time, the changing society, escalation of price, the change in price index, the human attitude to follow a particular pattern of life, etc., an addition of 40% of the established income of the deceased towards future prospects and where the deceased was below 40 years an addition of 25% where the deceased was between the age of 40 to 50 years would be reasonable. (emphasis supplied) 39. The rationale behind the awarding of future prospects is therefore no longer merely about the type of profession, whether permanent or other ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
