UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. JHAMKUBAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal filed by the appellant -insurance company against the interim award dated March 15, 1991, made by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Jhabuain Claim Case No. 85 of 1990 whereby an interim compensation of Rs. 25,000 has been awarded under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, on the principle of 'no' fault liability' to the claimant Jhamkubai, mother of the deceased minor, Ravindra Kumar, who died as a result of a motor accident in which the offending tractor, which stood insured for third party risk with the appellant -insurance company is involved.

(2.) THE interim award under appeal has been challenged by the appellant -insurance company on two grounds. The first ground of challenge is that since the motor accident in question resulting in the death of the deceased took place on March 15, 1989, when the new Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, had not come into force and the provisions of the old Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (Hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'), were applicable to the claim in question, the learned Tribunal committed a legal error in awarding Rs. 25,000 as interim compensation under Section 140 of the new Act. The interim compensation should have been awarded properly under Section 92A of the Act which was applicable to the instant claim relating to the accident which occurred on March 15, 1989. As such, the submission of learned counsel for the appellant -insurance company is that the learned Tribunal should have awarded Rs. 15,000 on the principle of no fault liability under Section 92A of the Act and not Rs. 25,000 as provided under Section 140 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which was not operative on the date of the accident.

(3.) THE second ground of challenge made on behalf of the appellant -insurance company is that, since, in the instant case, the deceased minor, Ravindra Kumar, was crushed under the wheels of the tractor belonging to his father, Mohansingh, respondent No. 1, the claimant, Jamkubai, w/o. Mohansingh and mother of the deceased minor, Ravindrakumar, was not entitled to prefer the instant claim for compensation under the Act. In short, the contention is that the claim by the mother of the deceased, Ravindra Kumar, who died as a result of a motor accident in which his father's tractor was involved, is not maintainable and as such, no interim compensation could have been awarded to the mother of the deceased.