NATIONAL INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. SHAKUNTALABAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AGGRIEVED by the award passed by the First Additional Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Indore in Claim Case No. 6 of 1982, dated 30. 8. 1986 the insurance company has filed this appeal.

(2.) THE facts leading to this appeal, in short, are that the present non-applicant Nos. 1 to 5 filed an application under Section 110-A of the Motor Vehicles Act against the present applicant and others seeking compensation of Rs. 80,000/- on the ground that a motor truck bearing registration No. MPO 1543 owned by respondent No. 6 Joba Singh, driven by respondent No. 7 Shankar, whose name was deleted during the pendency of the appeal, and insured with the present appellant, dashed against one Laxminarayan who was going on his bicycle from Banganga to Polo Ground on the left side of the road in Indore. When he reached near the Gurudwara, the aforesaid truck No. MPO 1543 driven at a high speed and negligently by driver Shankar dashed against the deceased. Consequently Laxminarayan received serious injuries and was rushed to the M. Y. Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. The applicants are his legal heirs and were fully dependent on the earnings of Laxminarayan. That is why on various grounds compensation of Rs. 80,000/- was claimed.

(3.) INITIALLY the driver and the owner of the truck contested the claim case, but later on they remained absent and the case proceeded ex parte against them, vide order of the lower Tribunal dated 4. 4. 1986. The present appellant, however, went before the lower Tribunal with a plea that the vehicle was not insured with the insurance company and that the driver was not holding a valid licence to drive the vehicle. The learned lower Tribunal framed five issues to decide the claim petition and held that the accident was caused due to the rash and negligent driving of the driver of the vehicle and the applicants being dependent on the deceased, being his legal representatives, were entitled to the compensation of Rs. 63,000/- from non-applicant Nos. 1 to 3. The plea of the insurance company that the vehicle was not insured with the company was negatived by the lower Tribunal and the company was held liable to pay the compensation to the non-applicants. Aggrieved by the aforesaid award the insurance company has filed this appeal.