SUBASH CHANDER Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) FOURTEEN appeals F. A. O. Nos. 67, 68, 69, 76, 87, 89, 99, 91, 101, 102, 103, 104 and 105 of 1971 have been filed against an award dated 4-1-1971 of the motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Rohtak. By the said award, the learned Tribunal had disposed of five claim applications arising out of the same motor accident under Section 110-A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. The reasons which had led the Tribunal to consolidate proceedings in these five cases and to dispose them of by one judgment would enable me to hear and dispose of all these fourteen appeals together.

(2.) THE undisputed facts are that on the morning of 17-6-1968. Haryana government Roadways Bus No. HRA-1246 and Jeep No. PNC-1557 happened to be travelling in opposite directions on Kaithal Narwana road. At about 9 A. M. the bus started from the Bus stand at village Kalayat and had gone hardly a furlong or two when the two vehicles collided on or near a road culvert. The jeep could make hardly a dent in the bus which had a full complement of passengers, all of whom are said to have escaped any injury. The jeep and its eight occupants, however, came in for a good deal of damage. The jeep had been battered out of shape and all its occupants sustained extensive injuries. Two of them succumbed to their injuries at the spot while three others died while they were being removed to the hospital at village Kalayat situated about two furlongs from the scene of the accident. One of the persons who died was Amar Singh, the jeep driver. but there is no claim for compensation in respect of his death. The jeep-owner's father Gore lal R. W. and his partner in business Dugar Mal A. W. have also not claimed any compensation even though they had sustained extensive injuries in the accident.

(3.) THE owner of the jeep. Shri Raj Kumar. who had been impleaded as respondent no. 4 in the Court below. was the luckily not in the vehicle at the time and the evidence is that he had lent it gratis out of friendship to Shri Chiranji Lal Bansal (deceased) who was a Superintendent in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. It is left to one's imagination as to how for the office that Shri Bansal held has affected the decision of the learned Tribunal. Shri Chiranji Lal Bansal. his wife smt. Bhagwanti and two out of his four sons namely Suresh Chander aged 13 years and subhash Chander aged 17 years, were amongst the eight occupants who were out for a joy ride in the jeep that morning. Shri Prem Chand. another business partner of the jeep-owner's father Shri Gore Lal was also amongst these eight occupants of the jeep. The accident had proved fatal for Shri Chiranji Lal Bansal his wife Smt. Bhagwanti and his son Suresh Chander. aged 13 years. The driver of the jeep had also died at the spot as stated earlier. Prem Chand had also died before he could be attended to in the nearby hospital. Subhash Chander son of Shri Chiranji Lal bansal had sustained injuries and he figures as a claimant in four out of the five claim applications arising out of this motor accident. Three claims were filed by subhash Chander. aged 17 years. along with his brothers Mangat Ram. aged 23 years. and Romesh. aged 19 years. separately in respect of the deaths of their father, mother and brother Suresh Chander, aged 13 years. The fourth claim application was by Subhash Chander alone in respect of his own injuries. A sum of rupees two lakhs was claimed in each application for compensation in respect of the deaths of Chiranji Lal Bansal and Bhagwanti while a sum of Rs. 50,000/-was claimed in respect of death of Master Suresh, a school student. Subhash had claimed a sum of Rs. 20,000/- in respect of the simple injuries sustained by him except for a fracture of the nasal bone which had kept him in the hospital for less than a week. The fifth claim was by Smt. Parsani Devi, mother of Prem Chand deceased and she had also claimed compensation in the sum of rupees two lakhs for the death of her bachelor son. aged about 25 years, Smt. Parasani's husband, the father of the deceased, is alive and has not joined her in filing a claim presumably because he was possessed of his own means and was not dependent on his son. The learned Tribunal has granted a sum of Rs. 73,873/-as compensation to the three surviving sons in respect of the death of the male head of the Bansal family. A sum of Rs. 14,280/-has been allowed as compensation in respect of the death of Mrs. Bansal. The three brothers of Suresh deceased have been awarded a sum of Rs. 10,000/-for the death of a minor member of the family who may not have started earning anything in the near future. Subhash chander has been granted a sum of Rs. 8,300/-as compensation for expenses on treatment and medicines and mental pain and agony in respect of his personal injuries. The fact that there was a dislocation in his studies has also been taken into account and the damages assessed on this account run into five figures. Allowance has, however, been given for the fact that Subhash Chander had been granted some maintenance in the three other cased filed by him jointly with his elder brothers Mangt Ram and Ramesh Chander. Smt Parsani Devi. the mother of prem Chand deceased (a bachelor of about 25 years of age), was granted a sum of Rs. 19,200/- as compensation for the death of her son. The blame for the accident was apportioned over the drivers of the bus and the jeep in the ratio of 60:40 on the basis of the relative weights or sizes of the two vehicles and the haryana Government Roadways was ordered to pay sixty per cent of the compensation amounts mentioned above in each case which the Life Insurance corporation of India, with which the jeep was insured was ordered to pay the balance forty per cent of these compensation amounts. The finding was that the drivers of both these vehicles involved in the accident had been guilty of rash and negligent driving.