ORIENTAL INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. LAXMI RANI BISWAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY making this application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the present insurer, namely, Oriental insurance Company Limited, puts to challenge the legality of the award, dated 20-12-1999, passed by the learned Member, motor Accident Claims Tribunal, West tripura, Agartala, in TS (MAC) No. 249/ 1995, directing payment of, in all, a sum of rs. 2,00,000/-, as compensation, with interest @ 12% per annum, with effect from 8-8-1995 (that is, the date of making of the claim application), with further direction to the present petitioner to pay, as insurer, the compensation awarded to the claimant-respondent No. 3.

(2.) WE have heard Mr. B, Bhattacharjee, learned counsel for the insurer-petitioner, and Mr. Somik Deb, learned counsel for the claimants-respondents.

(3.) CLAIMING that Dinesh Chandra Biswas, husband of the claimant No. 1 and son of the claimant No. 2, had died in an 'accident', arising out of rash and negligent driving of the vehicle bearing registration No. TR 01 2561 (G), on 16-9-1994, at about 12. 30pm, at Boramura, the claimant made an application, under Section 166 of the Motor vehicles Act, 1988 (in short, 'the MV Act, 1988'), seeking compensation, the case of the claimant being, in brief, thus: On 16-9-1996, at about 12. 30 pm, while her husband, a police constable, was travelling through Assam Agartala road, towards No. 10 ONGC Drill site, in a jeep, bearing registration No. TR-01-2561, followed, for reasons of safety, by another jeep, the driver of the vehicle, wherein Dinesh Chandra Biswas was travelling, drove the vehicle at excessive speed, leaving thereby far behind the other vehicle, which was following the vehicle, wherein Dinesh Chandra Biswas was travelling. In these circumstances, contends the claimants, taking advantage of the lone vehicle on the road, extremists opened fire towards the jeep, where the claimant's husband was travelling and as a result of the firing, her husband and the other occupants of the said vehicle sustained injuries and died, the said accident, according to the claimant, having taken place due to sheer negligence on the part of the driver of the vehicle involved in the accident, for, had the two vehicles been moving together, the accident could not have taken place.