MANJIT KAUR Vs. PUNJAB STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THREE claim petitions bearing MACT Case No. 36 of 1991, 37 of 1991 and 35 of 1991, arising out of the same accident were disposed of together by the Tribunal vide impugned judgment dated 2.12.1993. Thus the petitioners aggrieved by the award have filed separate FAO No. 247 of 1994, 248 of 1994 and 249 of 1994 and all these three FAOs will be decided together by this judgement.

(2.) THE facts of the case have been taken out from FAO No. 247 of 1994 which are as under :

(3.) THE claim petition was resisted by the respondents on the grounds that the claim petition is not maintainable. There were two other vehicles i.e. Car No. CHE-0287 and Truck No. HPA-1772 which were also involved in the accident and the particulars regarding owner, insurance company and the drivers of the above said vehicles were not mentioned by the claimants. In fact the Bus No. PB-12 A/9112 was coming from Chandigarh to Jalandhar. He was driving the bus at a normal speed. When the bus reached near the place of accident, a truck came from the opposite side followed by Car No. CHE-0287. The driver of the car accelerated the speed for overtaking the truck and when the driver of the car saw a bus Number PB-12 A/9112 coming from the opposite side, he further raised the speed to overtake the truck. By the time he realised that he will not succeed in overtaking the truck then the car driver became nervous and lost the control over the car. The car hit against the truck No. PHA-1772. The bus driver had slowed down the speed besides blowing the horn of the bus. He had steered the bus on the berm of the road of left side. But the car hit the bus after hitting the truck as the car driver could not control his car and also tried to overtake the truck on the main road by ignoring the traffic Rules. He had also ignored the traffic coming from the opposite side while overtaking. Thus the accident took place due to rash and negligent driving on the part of the car driver.