RATAN MALI Vs. NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This misc. appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 24.1.2001 passed in M.A.C. Case No. 32 of 1999 by the M.A.C. Tribunal, Hooghly. By the said judgment and order, the claimant's application under section 140 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as 'the said Act') has been dismissed.

(2.) The claimant-appellant was travelling in a private bus bearing registration No. WB 15-2612 on 19.2.1996. While the said bus was proceeding along N.H. 5, it suddenly capsized by the side of the road, as a result of which several passengers were seriously injured and some of them had died. The claimant-appellant is one of such passengers who was seriously injured. He filed the above application under section 140 of the said Act for payment of compensation under no fault liability.

(3.) At the trial of the proceeding, the involvement of the offending vehicle in the said accident, has been proved. It has also been proved in evidence that the claimant-appellant suffered injury for which he had to be treated at Uttarpara Hospital for about seven days as an indoor patient. The discharge certificate as issued by the said Uttarpara Hospital shows that claimant-appellant has suffered multiple injuries on his body. The claimant-appellant in support of his claim petition has produced a certificate, Exh. 6, issued by a doctor showing his permanent disability to the extent of 40 per cent because of the injury suffered by him in the said accident. The Claims Tribunal has rejected the above petition only on the ground that the certificate as issued by a doctor is not admissible in evidence, as the said doctor had not treated the claimant-appellant, while he was treated for his injury at the said Uttarpara Hospital.