UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. P SASIDHARAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Insurance Company is in appeal and the respondents are the legal heirs of one Anoopkumar who lost his life in a road traffic accident caused by the negligence of the driver of the vehicle which was duly insured at the time of the accident with the appellant Insurance Company. The learned Tribunal under the impugned award found that the accident occurred only on account of the negligence on the part of the driver of the vehicle which was insured with the appellant Company. The learned Tribunal awarded a total amount of Rs. 7,29,800/- as compensation on various heads as against the claim which was for Rs. 5 lakhs only.

(2.) IN the present appeal, the appellant company challenges the finding regarding negligence as well as the quantum of compensation.

(3.) IT was submitted by Sri.Rajan that in the Original Petition filed before the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal by the respondents who are the parents and sisters of the deceased Anoopkumar, they had claimed the monthly income of Anoopkumar to be only Rs. 4,000/-. But it was later, during the course of the trial, that Ext.A5 wage slip was put in evidence by the respondents to claim monthly income at the rate of Rs. 6,050/-. Ext.A5 cannot be given any weight as the same is issued by none other than the first claimant respondent who was the father of the deceased. In fact the very claim that the deceased was working with M/s Appollo Traders which is a concern belonging to the first respondent is a foisted one and the deceased was not engaged in any remunerative avocation at all. At any rate the Tribunal should not have placed reliance on Ext.A5, so argued Sri.Rajan Kaliyath. Sri.Rajan submitted that the finding that the driver of the vehicle insured with the appellant company was negligent is also not supported by cogent evidence. Significantly the claimants did not produce the scene mahazar.