ARUN KUMAR AGRAWAL AND ANOTHER versus NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY AND OTHERS

Citation: [2010] 9 S.C.R. 303 · Decided: 22-07-2010 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: G.S. SINGHVI · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

Cited by 5 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

[2010] 9 S.C.R. 303 
ARUN KUMAR AGRAWAL AND ANOTHER 
V. 
NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY AND OTHERS 
(Civil Appeal No. 5843 of 2010) 
JULY 22, 2010 
[G.S. SINGHVI AND ASOK KUMAR GANGULY, JJ.) 
A 
B 
Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 - ss. 166 and 163A; Second 
Schedule Clause (6) - Fatal motor accident - Of non-earning 
mother/house-wife - Claim petition u/s. 166 - Compensation 
C 
to her dependants - Criteria for determination - Held: The 
claimants are entitled to compensation - The services of non-
earning mother/house-wife cannot be compared with .that of 
a house-keeper/servant/employee, but monetary values 
should be put to the services rendered by them - Though s. 
D 
163A does not apply, in terms, to claim u/s. 166, yet in the 
absence of a definite criteria for determination of 
compensation payable to the dependants of non-earning 
house-wife/mother, it would be reasonable to rely upon the 
criteria specified in clause (6) of the Second Schedule and 
E 
then to apply appropriate multiplier -
Suggestion to 
Parliament to amend the provisions of the Act and the related 
·laws for giving compensation to the dependents of woman! 
home-maker - Legislation. 
Words and Phrases - 'Services' - Meaning of. 
A woman, aged about 39 years, died in a motor 
accident. The Appellant No. 1 (husband) and appellant No. 
F 
2 (son) filed a petition u/s. 166 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, 
seeking compensation of Rs. 19,20,000/- . The Motor G 
Accidents Claims Tribunal held that the claimants were 
entitled to compensation. While determining the quantum 
of compensation, it held that in view of clause (6) of 
303 
H 
304 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2010] 9 S.C.R. 
A Second Schedule of the Motor Vehicles Act, the income 
of the deceased could be assessed at Rs. 5,000/- p.m. (Rs. 
68,000 p.a.) and after making deduction of Rs. 20,000 
towards personal expenses and applying multiplier of 15, 
the total loss of dependency was assessed as Rs. 6 
B lakhs. However, the tribunal reduced the amount of 
c~mpensation to Rs. 2,50,000/-. The appeal, preferred by 
the claimants was dismissed by the High Court. 
In the instant appeal, the question for determination 
was as to what should be the criteria for determination 
C of the compensation payable to the dependants of a 
woman who dies in a road accident and who does not 
have regular source of income. 
D 
Allowing the appeal, the Court 
HELD: Per G.S. SINGHVI, J. 1. It is not possible to 
quantify any amount in lieu of the services rendered by 
the wife/mother to the family i.e. husband and children. 
However, for the purpose of award of compensation to 
E the dependents, some pecuniary estimate has to be made 
of the services of housewife/mother. In that context, the 
term 'services' is required to be given a broad meaning 
and must b~ construed by taking into account the loss 
of personal care and attention given by the deceased to 
her children as a mother and to her husband as a wife. 
F 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 
G services to the family which the deceased was giving 
earlier. [Para 24] [333-H; 334-A-C] 
2. It is highly unfair, unjust and inappropriate to 
compute the compensation payable to the dependents of 
H a deceased wife/mother, who does not have regular 
ARUN KUMAR AGRAWAL v. NATIONAL INSURANCE 305 
COMPANY 
income, by comparing her services with that of a house-
A 
keeper or a servant or an employee, who works for a 
fixed period. The gratuitous services rendered by wife/ 
mother to the husband and children cannot be equated 
with the services of an employee and no evidence or data 
can possibly be produced for estimating the value of 
8 
such services. It is virtually impossible to measure in 
terms of money the loss of personal care and attention 
suffered by the husband and children on the demise of 
the house-wife. [Para 32] [338-E-G] 
3. Section 163A of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 contains 
C 
a special provision for payment of compensation on the 
basis of a structured formula as indicated in the Second 
Schedule of the Act, which contains a table prescribing 
the compensation to be awarded with reference to the 
age and income of the deceased. The note appended to 
D 
column (1) of the Second Schedule makes it clear that 
from the total amount of comp

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