JABALPUR, India, May 26 -- Madhya Pradesh High Court issued the following judgment/order on April 24:

This Misc. Appeal is filed by the appellants/claimants being aggrieved of the award dated 14.10.2025 by learned 23 rd Addl. Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Bhopal in Claim Case No. 2825 of 2023 on the sole ground that since married daughter Mahak Moolani (Claimant No.4) was also arrayed as one of the claimants, therefore, 1/4th deduction should have been made on account of the living expenses of the deceased Gural Das Gogiya in place of 1/3rd deduction made by learned Claims Tribunal.

In support of this contention, reliance is placed by the learned counsel for the appellant on the decision of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Seema Rani & Ors. Vs. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. & Ors. 2025 ACJ 338, where taking married daughter to be also dependent, 1/4th deduction is made.

On the contrary, learned counsel for the respondents submits that the decision on which reliance is placed by learned counsel for the appellant is dated 11.02.2025 but subsequent to that on 13.05.2025 in the case of Deep Shikha & another Vs. National Insurance Company & Ors. 2025 LeviLaw (SC) 561, only 1/3rd dependency has been treated and married daughter is not considered to be dependent on the deceased.

It is true that, there are conflicting decisions, but if we apply the rational of computing dependency, then dependency will be only of those family members who are residing with the deceased/bread earner. Situation would have been different, if the married daughter would have under unfortunate circumstances attained desertion or widowhood and would have become dependent on her father or brother as the case may be i.e. the bread earner of the family, in that case, the deduction could have been made taking into consideration such widow or deserted lady to be dependent on the bread earner and not otherwise.

Therefore, when this reasoning is applied, then, in my opinion, this aspect being not considered by Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Seema Rani & Ors. (Supra), the facts of the present case are distinguishable.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://mphc.gov.in/storage/upload/jabalpur/MPHCJB/2026/MA/119/MA_119_2026_FinalOrder_24-04-2026_digi.pdf)

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