PRESIDENT UNION OF INDIA NEW DELHI Vs. SADASHIV

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Military Crane No. 430143 having developed trouble, was being towed by a military tractor driven by defendant 4 Gurucharansing Bhaktawarsingh Sikh, from Dapodi to Poona. The plaintiff Sadashiv Vaikar's son Sham was also proceeding towards Poona from Fugewadi on his bicycle. A narrow bridge called Harris Bridge was a mute witness to an accident between the cyclist Sham and the military tractor driver, and according to the parents of the cyclist the military drivers were negligent in driving their vehicles as a result of which Sham was fatally knocked down by the tractor and the Crane. Sadashiv Vaikar filed Special Civil Suit No. 32 of 1971 in the Court of the Civil Judge, Senior Division, Poona, which decreed the claim of Rs. 10,000/-with interest. The Union of India, feeling aggrieved, has filed this appeal.

(2.) The first contention raised by the Union is that as the tractor as well as the crane belonging to the Defence Department were being driven on military purposes by the Jawans of the Indian Army, the Union of India is not liable under the principles of sovereign immunity. Such an argument has been traversed by the Supreme Court in State of Rajasthan v. Mst. Vidyawati, AIR 1962 SC 933, where the official jeep of the Collector of the District brought from the workshop after repairs had knocked down a pedestrian and fatally injured him. It was held that the State can be made vicariously liable for the tortious act, like any other employer, and the mere fact that the car was being maintained for the use of the Collector, in the discharge of his official duties, is not sufficient to take the case out of the category of cases where vicarious liability of the employer could arise even though the car was not being used at the time of the occurrence for any purpose of the State.

(3.) In the instant case the crane could have been towed away for the purposes of repairs by any other private agency and the function of towing away like the function of driving a jeep back from the repairer's workshop cannot be said to bear the imprint of any sovereign function.