KORE LAXMI Vs. UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Aggrieved by the order and the decree dated 5.12.2001 in A.A.O. No. 2577 of 1999 passed by a learned single Judge, the present appeal is filed.

(2.) The only question that arises for consideration in this appeal is "whether a driver due to whose negligence the accident has taken place can claim compensation under the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act or whether he has to approach the Commissioner under the Workmen's Compensation Act"?

(3.) The facts of the case are that the appellants in the L.P.A. are the legal heirs of one K. Anand, who died in a road accident while driving a lorry bearing registration No. AP 25-T 1452 while proceeding from Nizamabad to Nagpur at about 6.15 a.m. on 5.2.1995. The specific case of the appellants herein is that the deceased driver was unable to control his lorry and dashed against lorry bearing No. ATJ 407 coming from the opposite direction, and as a result of which the deceased received multiple injuries on his body and died in the Government Hospital, Nirmal on the same day at about 9 a.m. They filed claim petition on 23.1.1996 under section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act claiming about Rs. 2,50,000 on various counts with 18 per cent interest per annum from the date of filing of the petition till its realisation. We need not go into the details of the order passed by the Tribunal. Suffice it to say that the Tribunal having noticed that the accident had taken place due to the negligence of the deceased driver, arrived at the compensation payable to the appellants at Rs. 2,59,000 and restricted their claim to the amount they claimed in the claim petition by applying Table of the Second Schedule under section 163-A of the Act. Section 163-A was introduced by Amending Act 54 of 1994 and the same came into force on 14.11.1994. It is useful to extract section 163-A of the Act: