BABITA Vs. KRISHAN PAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal under Sec. 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, preferred by the wife of the deceased namely Sh. Balbir Singh, seeks to assail the award dtd. 2/5/2019 passed by the learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal. Vide the impugned award, the learned Tribunal has rejected the claim of the appellants primarily on the ground that the appellant no.1/wife of the deceased had already received a sum of Rs.5,00,000.00 from the owner and driver of the offending vehicle by way of a Panchayati Settlement dtd. 22/10/2017 entered into between the parties. The learned Tribunal has further held that since MACT proceedings in respect of the same incident were already pending before the learned Tribunal at Faridabad, the proceedings before the learned Tribunal at Delhi were even otherwise, not maintainable.

(2.) Learned counsel for the appellants submits that the learned Tribunal has failed to appreciate that the appellant no.1, having lost her husband at a young age, was asked to sign certain blank papers by the owner and the driver of the offending vehicle and being under a belief that she was being paid a sum of Rs.5,00,000.00 towards the loan advanced by her deceased husband, she accepted the amount and signed the papers. The learned Tribunal, however, failed to appreciate this aspect and accepted the respondents' plea that she had already received compensation and therefore rejected her claim. He submits that merely because the appellant no.1 accepted this meagre amount of Rs.5,00,000.00 from the owner and driver of the vehicle, the right of the minor children to receive compensation could not be said to have been waived. He, therefore, prays that the appeal be allowed and the matter be remanded back to the learned Tribunal for adjudication on merits.

(3.) On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondents support the impugned award by contending that once the appellant no.1 had entered into a compromise and received the sum of Rs.5,00,000.00, she cannot now be permitted to raise any further claim for compensation. They, therefore, pray that the appeal be dismissed.