BHARATKUMAR MANILAL SONI Vs. SURENDRAKUMAR KANTILAL MISTRY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SHRI Rajni H. Mehta, learned counsel for the appellants no. 1 to 3; Shri M.C. Bhatt, learned counsel for the respondent.

(2.) THE present appeal has been filed by driver, owner and the Insurance Company being aggrieved by the order dated 30.12.1983 passed in M.A.C.P. No. 91 of 1982 by Motor Accident Claims Tribunal No.1 [Main], Ahmedabad, awarding a sum of Rs. 1,35,000/ - cost and 6% interest from the date of the petition till realization of the amount; the appellant no. 3 "Oriental Fire and General Insurance Company Limited has been held liable to pay the awarded amount to the claimant. The question relating to maintainability of a joint appeal at the instance of the owner, driver and Insurance Company is no more res integra, because, the Supreme Court in matter of H. S. Ahammed Hussain v. Irfan Ahammed, 2002 AIR(SC) 2483, has held that joint appeal would be maintainable after deleting the name of the Insurance Company.

(3.) ON being asked that who had spent the amount in filing the appeal and instructed the counsel to file the appeal, Shri Mehta, learned counsel for the appellants submits that he was engaged by the appellant no.3, who had paid him his professional fee and had also spent some money towards expenses. When this Court required Shri Mehta to inform the Court that whether appellants no. 1 and 2 ever instructed the learned counsel for making a prayer to delete the name of the appellant no.3, Shri Mehta submitted that he never received any such instructions, but as counsel in the case, he thought his duty to make a prayer for deletion of the appellant no.3 so that the appeal continues to be maintainable.