SUNITHA Vs. RANJU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether an appeal filed under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') should be accompanied by a certified copy of the award/judgment or whether it is sufficient to file the free copy issued under Section 168(2) of the Act, is the question referred to the Full Bench. In the judgment reported in Habeeb v. Sebastian T.C., 2010 4 ILR(Ker) 940 , a Division Bench of this Court, after elaborately considering the various provisions in the Motor Vehicles Act, Kerala Motor Vehicles Rules and Civil Rules of Practice directed that all appeals preferred under Section 173 of the Act after 01/01/2011 shall be accompanied by a certified copy of the award and that appeals accompanied by free copy of the award shall not be entertained after 01/01/2011.

(2.) Another Division Bench in its order dated 08/07/2011 in an unnumbered MACA of 2011, found that the free copy of the award is the statutory right of the claimant and therefore such free copy issued must be held to be sufficient for all purposes including filing of appeal and disagreed with the directives issued in Habeeb v. Sebastian . This Division Bench was of the view that new generation enactments like Motor Vehicles Act, the Family Courts Act, etc., do recognise the right of a person to receive free copy of the decision rendered in the litigation in which he is a party and that at least in respect of such statutes which recognise such a right of the party to receive a free copy, such free copy should be held to be sufficient for all purposes, and therefore the Tribunals which are constituted to render rough and ready justice to the parties should be liberated from the shackles of unnecessary procedural niceties. The matter is referred to the Full Bench under these circumstances.

(3.) In this context, an analysis of the various provisions relating to the passing of award and the procedural formalities in filing an appeal under the Act is necessary.