UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO. LTD. Vs. FATMABEN ISMAILBHAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is filed by the appellant-insurance company under Sec. 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 ('MV Act' for short), being aggrieved and dissatisfied with the judgment and award dtd. 23/8/2005 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (Aux.), Rajkot in MACP No.52 of 2000, whereby the claim petition of the claimants was partly allowed and the original opponents were ordered to pay the amount of compensation of Rs.10,82,000.00 along with proportionate costs and interest thereon at the rate of 9% p.a. from the date of filing till realization.

(2.) The brief facts leading to filing of this appeal are such that the alleged incident occurred on 18/8/1999, when the deceased and his son had gone to Ahmedabad to sell groundnut seeds and when they were returning back to their native at Veraval in the truck no.GJ-1T-6899 on 17/9/1999 and when the truck reached nearby the bridge of Madhuvan river, at that time, driver of truck lost control over the steering resulting into falling down the entire truck below the bridge as a result of which, the deceased sustained grievous injuries and succumbed to the injuries for which the heirs and legal representatives of the deceased filed a Claim Case No.52 of 2000 before the MACT (Aux.), at Rajkot for compensation of Rs.15,00,000.00.

(3.) On issuance of notice, the appellant-insurance company appeared and resisted the claim petition by contending that the deceased was the illegal passenger in the offending vehicle, which was positively a goods vehicle, hence it stands exonerated from remitting the liability of compensation; that the driver of the offending truck was not holding a valid driving licence at the relevant time of accident and therefore, insured has committed breach of terms of policy which exonerated it from liability of compensation; that the age and income of the deceased including dependency of the present claimants was challenged and hence, prayed to dismiss the claim petition, however, the learned Tribunal held both the opponents liable and passed the impugned award, which is challenged by the appellantinsurance company by way of filing this petition.