PRAHLADBHAI JOITARAM PAMAR Vs. AHMEDABAD MUNICIPAL TRANSPORT SERVICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Admit. Service of the notice is waived by Shri H.S. Munshaw, learned advocate for respondent no.1, original opponent no.1.

(2.) Shri A.R. Thacker, learned advocate for the appellants is permitted to delete respondent no.2, driver of the bus. Upon the request of the learned advocates, in view of the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and in the light of the sole contention based on no fault liability raised before us, the appeal is taken up today, upon consensus, for final hearing.

(3.) In this appeal under sec.173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (Act No.59 of 1988) ("the Act" for brevity), the appellants who are the original claimants have challenged the judgment and award recorded by the Motor Accidents Claim Tribunal, at Ahmedabad, in Motor Accident Claim Petition No.360 of 1995 dated 26.9.1997, whereby, the claim petition for compensation on account of the vehicular accident against the respondents, original opponents came to be dismissed, interalia, holding that the driver of the offending bus was not proved to be accountable person for the happening of the unfortunate accident in which the deceased Kankuben Joitaram Parmar lost her life while alighting from the bus, route no.141 owned by Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service ("AMTS" for brevity) in the city of Ahmedabad. Thus, the Tribunal reached to the conclusion that it was the deceased who was responsible for her accidental death as she tried to get down from a running bus when it was slowed down by the driver on account of traffic ahead of it at a place where there was no scheduled bus stop. The Tribunal, therefore, concluded that the allegation of tortuous liability on the part of the driver of the offending bus has not been proved and therefore, the original claim filed by the claimants, heirs of the deceased Kankuben for an amount of Rs.1,52,000.00 came to be dismissed. That is how this appeal has come up before us at the instance of the appellants/ original claimants, heirs of the deceased Kankuben out of whom no.1 is the adult son, whereas nos.2 and 3 are the married daughters of the deceased.