MATAJI BEWA Vs. HEMANTA KUMAR JENA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal under Section 110 -D of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') against an award of the Second Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Cuttack, in Miscellaneous Case No. 178 of 1984.

(2.) THE claimants had filed the application under Section 110 -A of the Act claiming compensation to the tune of Rs. 1,30,000/ -alleging that when the deceased was going on the road on the National Highway No. 5 on 2.2.1984, at 5.00 a.m., the offending truck bearing registration No. CSC 5480 knocked him down from his back side as a result of which the deceased sustained fatal injury. He was immediately removed to the S.C.B. Medical College Hospital, Cuttack, where he succumbed to the injury on the very same day at 6.00 p.m. It was averred in the claim petition that the deceased was earning Rs. 1,500/ - per month and was contributing Rs. 1,000/ - for the maintenance of the family. The claimants are the widow, the minor daughters and the widowed mother of the deceased.

(3.) THE Tribunal came to hold that the deceased was a passenger in the truck which was involved in the accident. The said truck was being driven rashly and negligently by the driver. The deceased as a passenger sustained the injury on account of the accident and ultimately succumbed to the injury. On the quantum of compensation, the Tribunal found that a sum of Rs. 36,000/ -would be the just compensation. But in view of the finding that the deceased was travelling in the truck as a passenger when the accident occurred, the Tribunal held that the insurer was not liable to pay any compensation and accordingly allowed the application ex parte against the owner and dismissed the same as against the insurer. It is against this award, the present appeal has been preferred both on the ground of insufficient compensation having been awarded and on the ground of exonerating the insurer from liability.