NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO LTD Vs. HARI KISHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by insurance company against the award of compensation to the tune of Rs. 1,09,000 by the learned Third Additional Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Ashok Nagar, District Guna, in Claims Case No. 17 of 1994, which has exceeded Rs. 86,000, the quantum of compensation claimed before the Tribunal.

(2.) The main submission of the learned counsel for the appellant is confined to a point that the learned Tribunal ought not to have given excess compensation in question when the same did not form a part of the pleadings. Learned counsel has also placed reliance on a latest decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Nagappa v. Gurudayal Singh, 2003 ACJ 12 (SC), but the same decision has also clarified the point in issue in para 21, which reads as under:

(3.) Thus, there is no ambiguity that to meet the ends of justice, so also to arrive at the 'just' compensation, the court is empowered to award an amount exceeding the amount claimed.