KIRITBHAI GORDHANBHAI DARJI Vs. NATIONAL INSURANCE CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RULE. Learned counsel Ms. Bhaya waives service for respondent No. 1. Other respondents are not required to be served or heard for the purpose of present application. Therefore, service upon them is dispensed with.

(2.) THE applicant has prayed, in substance, for vacating the interim order passed on 15. 06. 2007 against withdrawal of the amount in Civil Application for condonation of delay No. 7779 of 2007.

(3.) THERE was no dispute about the facts on record that the claimants are held to be entitled to compensation by award dated 19. 07. 2005 of M. A. C. T. Nadiad in M. A. C. P. No. 1151 of 1991; and the present opponent No. 1-Insurance Company has preferred an appeal therefrom with an application for condonation of delay of 120 days in preferring the appeal. It is the grievance of the applicant that even the notice issued to the claimants in the said application No. 7779 of 2007 was not served upon them till December, 2007, even as the stay against withdrawal of the amount was operating by virtue of the order dated 15. 06. 2007. Thus, it was clear from the record that, even as the Insurance Company was required to pay the amount in terms of the award within 30 days under the provisions of Sub-Section (3) of Section 168 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the appeal was proposed to be preferred and the claimants were pursuing execution proceedings in the Tribunal. As stated in the application, the Insurance Company had deposited the amount only after obtaining an ex-parte stay in its delay condonation application and not cared to have the notices in delay condonation application served upon the original claimants. During the intervening period of more than two years, one of the claimants is stated to have already passed away and the helplessness of the other claimants could only be imagined. Learned counsel for the Insurance Company could not cite any legal provision or precedent in support of the interim relief granted, pending application for condonation of delay, and, therefore, such order could not be sustained or continued in the teeth of opposition by the claimants through the present application. Therefore, the present application is allowed and the interim order dated 15. 06. 2007 in Civil Application No. 7779 of 2007, as modified by the subsequent order, is vacated. Rule is made absolute with cost of Rs. 1000/- which shall be paid by respondent No. 1 to the applicant herein.