KAMRUDDIN Vs. SUBHASH CHANDRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal impugns the order of the learned MACT dated 06.11.2017, dismissing the appellants' claim petition for compensation under section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. It is the appellants-parents' case that their son was standing beside a road in a market place, when he was hit by the offending insured tractor bearing No.UP-80-BV-3730 on 28.02.2015 at about 5:30 pm. The accident took place near Agra. The injured was rushed to Delhi to LNJP Hospital, New Delhi, where he was declared "brought dead". In support of their claim, the appellants have led evidence through one eyewitness- Hamid and relied upon the DD Entry registered at Police Station Civil Lines, Delhi the very next morning i.e. on 01.03.2015. The DD entry reads as under:

(2.) After demise of the injured at Delhi, the Investigating Officer at Delhi sought information from the Police Station under whose jurisdiction the accident occurred.

(3.) What emanates from the above is that the offending vehicle bearing UP 80 CN 6074 which caused motor vehicular accident had been seized and two persons i.e. Hameed and Faizan were apprehended by the police at Police Station Khadoli, Agra (U.P). The said offending vehicle was identified by Police Station Khadoli, as a tractor bearing registration no. UP 80 BY 3730 and its trolley. An FIR was registered. A chargesheet was prepared against the accused. Criminal proceedings are still underway. The identity of the vehicle is not in doubt. The impugned order has declined the Award of compensation primarily on the ground that there was three days' delay in registration of the FIR. This Court is of the view that in the circumstances of the present case, where serious injuries had been caused to both the victims, one of whom was rushed to Delhi and was declared dead; the shocked and worried family and relatives of the victims would be least bothered about technical temporal affairs such as registration of an FIR. Prompt medical care and saving the life of the grievously injured, would be the only concern and priority in that difficult moment. All-the-more-so, when the victim had to be rushed, hundreds of kilometers away from the site of the accident to Delhi for the best possible medical care. Loss of the life of a young man in a motor vehicular accident, who was just about 19 years of age, would for his family be a difficult circumstance. There was a continuity in the sequence of events till the registration of the FIR which may have been registered later but nevertheless, a DD Entry was made on the very next day of the accident, i.e. roughly within 24 hours. The same cannot be treated as delay because it was occasioned by the natural response of his family to the first instance, to rush the injured to a hospital where he could get medical assistance.