NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO LTD Vs. CHHAGAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS miscellaneous appeal under Section 110d of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, has been preferred by the insurance company against the award dated November 26, 1981, passed by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Mandleshwar, in Claim Case No. 47 of 1979.

(2.) THE brief facts are that respondent No. 1 filed a claim petition claiming Rs. 30,000 by way of compensation on account of injuries sustained by him in an accident which occurred on May 9, 1979. The claimant's case was that on May 9, 1979, while he was travelling from Sendhwa to Khandwa by a Matador-bus bearing registration No. MHZ-2344, the bus collided with a road-side drum and the driver fell into a nullah as a result of which the claimant sustained serious injuries including the fracture of right hand, right mandible, left femur and left ribs for which he was treated at the Primary Health Centre, Khandwa, and thereafter at the Gupta Nursing Home, Indore.

(3.) THE present appellant resisted the claim on the ground that the vehicle in question was not registered for carrying any passenger for hire or reward and that the policy of insurance did not cover any such risk. It was contended that the vehicle was being driven in contravention of the permit and the policy conditions, and as such the insurer was not liable to pay the compensation.