madurai the madras high court bench in madurai has passed an order by enhancing the compensation amount from rs 85000 to rs 251 lakh to the family of a accident victim s govindarajan was a retired employee of the postal department he was hit by a van on november 4 2008 when he was riding his motorcycle and died on the spot alleging loss of dependency and loss of love and affection the claimants his wife vijaya and mother pattammal filed a claim petition before the motor accidents claims tribunal chief judicial magistrate thanjavur at kumbakonam claiming a sum of rs 15 lakh as compensation the claimants had said in their petition that the deceased govindarajan was into real estate business after his retirement by which he was able to earn rs 30000 per month based on this they had claimed rs 15 lakh as compensation but the tribunal in its order dated may 25 2011 awarded a sum of rs 85000 as compensation with interest at 75 per annum the funeral expenses transport expenses and loss of love and affection were considered by the tribunal while making the award but the loss of dependency was not considered by it aggrieved by the order the claimants filed an appeal before the madras high court bench in madurai which was heard by justice s vimala who passed an order by enhancing the compensation amount to rs251 lakh the judge said while considering the claim for loss of dependency the tribunal gave a reasoning that the deceased had been receiving 100 pension benefit out of which 70 is received by his wife and mother as family pension and the remaining 30 deducted towards personal expenses of the deceased therefore there was no loss of income to the family therefore there is no basis to award compensation for the loss of dependency the basic principle in award of compensation is that what is lost on account of death of the deceased has to be awarded as compensation the counsel for the bajaj allianz general insurance company limited madurai had submitted in the appeal that as the deceased was an aged person and retired from the postal department he would not have been an earning member the judge pointed out in the judgment that work always make people happier and healthier only keeping this in mind many of them go for parttime weekend or outofoffice hours jobs therefore the contention of the claimants that even after retirement the deceased had been employed and workingearning cannot be discarded in the absence of corroborative evidence regarding the income of the deceased it is appropriate to take the monthly income of the deceased at rs 3000 per month deducting onethird towards personal expenses of the deceased the contribution to the family will be rs 2000 per month the deceased was aged 58 years at the time of the accident therefore the loss of dependency would be rs 216 lakh the total compensation is quantified at rs 251