SUBASH RANI Vs. D T C

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is filed by the claimants for the enhancement of compensation awarded by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal. The respondent No. 1, D.T.C. has also filed an appeal bearing No. FAO 397/80.

(2.) The accident took place on 17.7.1978 in which Rajiv Bhardwaj was killed in a bus accident. The deceased was going on his cycle to his College, Viz. Shyam Lal College When he was nearing the College and was in front of Gandhi Memorial Higher Secondary School, he was knocked down by the D.T.C. Bus No. DLP 58. The claimants submit that the DTC bus was coming on the wrong side from the opposite direction. The FIR was filed after the accident and in the criminal case, the driver of the bus was convicted. The FIR. the post-mortem report, the site plan and the mechanical inspection report were produced in the evidence. These reports go to show that the version of the claimants was correct. The bus was on the wrong side and hit the cyclist from the left front side. The fact of the accident and the manner in which it took place had been stated in detail by the eye-witnesses, viz. Public Witness /2, Public Witness /3 and Public Witness /4. I am taken through the evidence of these eye-witnesses and I am satisfied that there is nothing in their evidence to disbelieve them. The evidence of the various reports stated above and the evidence of the eye-witnesses leave me in no doubt that the said D.T.C. bus was responsible for causing the accident and the death of Rajiv Bhardwaj.

(3.) On behalf of the respondents it is submitted that it was the deceased who in confusion slipped from his cycle and hit against the bus. There is hardly any evidence produced by the respondents. The Conductor of the bus, as noted by the Tribunal, could not state anything more than the fact that there was an accident. He had not stated anything to show that the cyclist was either confused or slipped from the cycle and on his own hit the bus. The finding of the Tribunal in so far as the liability of the bus for the rash and negligent driving and causing the death of Rajiv Bhardwaj is, therefore, to be hald. FAO. 397/80 is, therefore, dismissed.