UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. BIJU APREM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Does the dismissal of an earlier application by their father, with them on the array of petitioners, bar the minor claimants from subsequently applying for compensation on account of the death of their mother in a motor accident ? This is the only ground on which the appellant insurer challenges the award of the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal.

(2.) The claimants lost their mother to a motor accident on 26.9.1976. While the second claimant was still a minor, the application for compensation from which this appeal arises was filed on 4.5.1988, within three years of the first among the claimants attaining majority, and is therefore, undisputedly, within time.

(3.) The claimants' father filed O.P(MV).No.199/84 arraying them also in the list of petitioners and claimed compensation supported by an application to condone delay under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. The Tribunal dismissed that application as against the first respondent therein, on the ground that bata for service of notice was not duly paid. Thereafter the Tribunal tried that case and, by Ext.B1 order, dismissed the application to condone delay by holding that no sufficient cause is shown. It also held that it was not proved that any compensation was due on account of the death.