NATIONAL INSURANCE CO. LTD Vs. ZULEKA BEGUM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AGGRIEVED by the Award dated 19.04.2007 in O.P.No.183 of 2005 passed by the Chairman, MACT -cum -District Judge at Mahabubnagar (for short the Tribunal), the 2nd respondent in the OP/National Insurance Company Limited preferred the instant appeal.

(2.) THE factual matrix of the case is thus:

(3.) IMPUGNING the award, learned counsel for appellant mainly contended that the deceased was a worker under PW.2 whose buffaloes were being transported in the ill -fated lorry and who also travelled in the vehicle and as such, the deceased who accompanied PW.2 in the same lorry can only be termed as a gratuitous or unauthorized passenger but not the owner or his authorized representative of the goods i.e, livestock and hence the policy does not cover his risk. He submitted that the Tribunal erred in holding that the deceased travelled in the capacity of owner of the goods. He argued that policy covers either the owner or his authorized representative but not both and in the instant case, as the owner himself travelled in the lorry, the question of policy covering the risk of deceased being his worker does not arise. He thus prayed to allow the appeal and set aside the award.