ORIENTAL INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. S JAGADISH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals under S.110-D of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 ("the Act"), are of the insurer and the owner of a motor vehicle (Tempo) preferred against the common judgment and separate awards dated 28-3-1988 in Cases --- M.V.C. No.577; 86 and M.V.C. No.578/ 86, on the file of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Bangalore Rural District, Bagalore ("the Claims Tribunal"), awarding compensation to persons who had suffered bodily injuries in an accident arising out of the use of that Tempo.

(2.) Tempo--CNS 6061 is the motor vehicle, in which S. Jagadish, claimant in M.V.C. No.577/86 and respondent in M.F.A. No.1448/ 1988, and S. Shivappa Shastri, claimant in M.V.C. No.578/88 and respondent in M.F.A. No.1449/ 1988, were travelling from Shimoga to Bangalore at 4.30 a.m., on 15-6-1986 when that vehicle dashed against a road-side tree near Budihal while on Tumkur-Bangalore Road, resulting in a motor accident. Jagadish and Shivappa Shastri, who sustained bodily injuries in that accident, claimed compensation therefor from Harish Babu, the owner of the Tempo, and the Oriental Insurance Company Ltd., the insurer of that Tempo, by filing the cases, M.V.C. No.577/88 and M.V.C. No.578/88, before the Claims Tribunal alleging that the motor accident causing bodily injuries to them had occurred due to the rash and negligent driving of the driver of the Tempo in which they were travelling. The said cases having been clubbed together by consent of parties, common evidence came to be recorded by the Claims Tribunal in M.V.C. No.577/ 86. By a common judgment rendered by the Claims Tribunal, while compensation in a sum of Rs. 44,000/- is awarded to S. Jagadish, petitioner in M.V.C. No.577/ 86, compensation in a sum of Rs. 71,500/- is awarded to S. Shivappa Shastri, petitioner in M.V.C. No.578/86. On the said sums of compensation, interest at 12% per annum from the date of petitions till the date of realisation is also awarded. The owner and the insurer of the Tempo are jointly and severally made liable to pay the said sums of compensation and interest together with costs. A separate award in each of the cases has been made in that regard. It is the said common judgment and separate awards which are appealed against in the present appeals, as stated at the out-set.

(3.) Sri S.P.Shankar, learned Counsel for the appellants in each of the appeals, sought to assail the common judgment and separate awards under appeals, rather severely, insofar as they relate to the award of compensation in favour of the petitioners under the head 'for the injuries affecting their day to day life and future' and the rate of interest on the amount of compensation at 12% per annum from the date of petitions till the date of realisation, on the submission to which we shall advert when each of the points is taken up for consideration.