PIKKU RAM Vs. JASWANT SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ON 13th July, 1972 Pikku Ram (also described as Bhikhu Ram in evidence) was going on his bicycle at about 8 a.m. on the main road which connects Tribune building with Madhya Marg near Timber Market. He has come from the side of the Timber Market and was going to Air-Field. On that road, he was sandwitched between Coca-Cola truck coming from the opposite direction and an Ambassador car (Station-wagon type) which had come from behind. In the sandwitched condition, the handle of the cycle was first hit by the truck, as a result of which he fell on the rear portion of the car and was ultimately thrown off, due to which he received certain injuries and became unconscious. Firstly, he was removed to P.G.I., Chandigarh. Since he was serving in the Army, he was got discharged from the P.G.I, on 14th July, 1972, and the same evening was admitted in the Command Hospital, Chandigarh. There he remained as an in-door patient till 28th August, 1972, and at the time of discharge was advised eight weeks' sick leave. The doctor of the P.G.I. appeared as A.W. 4 and that of the Command Hospital as A.W. 8. A reading of the evidence of these two doctors shows that right parietal and clavicle bones were fractured. In the claim petition filed by him under the Motor Vehicles Act, the claimant blamed the driver of the truck as also the car driver. The claim petition was contested by both the drivers as also by the owner of the truck, and the Insurance Companies, each putting the blame on the other.

(2.) ON the contest of the parties, the following issues were framed:

(3.) AFTER hearing the learned Counsel for the parties, I am driven to the conclusion that the drivers of the truck and the car were guilty of contributory negligence. A reading of the pleadings of the parties and the evidence led in the case, shows that the driver of the truck wanted to pass the standing jeep. He came over the right side of the road and to save head-on collision the cyclist swerved more towards his right and at the same time, the truck wanted to come to its correct side i.e. the left side, and in this process finding some space on the left side of the cyclist, the car which was coming behind the cyclist tried to pass from the left side of the cyclist and in this process the cyclist came in between the two vehicles. The photographs are on the record. There is a scratch on the bumper of the truck and the right back-light of the car was also broken.