VIDYA KAKKAR Vs. DELHI TRANSPORT CORPORATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal raises a common question of law as to whether interest should be awarded from the date of application for compensation or from the dale of the judgment on the default being committed by the Ins. Co, The Tribunals are invariably following the second course of granting interest only when there failure of dapositing the compensation amount by the Ins. Co. Section 110 CC was inserted in the Motor Vehicles Act, by Section 62 of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 1969, which took effect from 2-3-1970. It reads :

(2.) It may be noted that the section does not lay down as to whether the interest is payable from the date of the application or from a subsequent date. It is thus left to the discretion of the Tribunal. A civil court always has the power to grant pendent life and future interest where money payment is ordered. But, MACT is a creature of the M.V. Act. Its powers were limited to those given by the Act and no more. That was the reason why the amendment in question was required to be incorporated in the Act, so as to give powers to the Tribunal to award interest.

(3.) "Interest" is differently disoribed in law in different contexts. For example, interest means compensation paid by the borrower to the lender for deprivation of the use his money", (1947) A.C. 399. It is also stated in common law that interest on money covers general damages. Interest is payable if there is a contract to that effect or because of the wrongful withholding of the money. The discretion of the Court comes in where interest is payable as compensation for deprivation of the use of money or where the money is wrongfully withheld. Under the M.V. Act it is sufficient that there is deprivation of the use of money, i.e. compensation, and it is not necessary that this withholding is wrongful for the purposes of paying interest.