UTTAM DEVI Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN an accident between a car DHB-4787 and Haryana Roadways bus HRB-4397, which took place on the Sirsa-Fatehabad read on September 2, 1974, Dewan Chand Batra, the driver and owner of car an Vinod Kumar Malik, an Assistant District Attorney, who was travelling in this car were amongst the persons killed. The claims for compensation put in by the widow and minor children of Dewan Chand Batra, deceased and the mother and sisters of Mr. Vinod Kumar Malik, deceased, were dismissed by the Tribunal on the finding that there was no fault either of the car driver or of the bus driver and that the collusion between the two vehicles was a pure accident. The challenge here is to this finding and the consequent dismissal of the claims for compensation filed by the claimants.

(2.) THE view of the Tribunal that the collusion between the two vehicles was a pure accident cannot be sustained. Negligence is writ-large in a situation like the present where vehicles travelling in opposite directions collide. The maxim res ipsa loquitur would clearly be attracted to such a situation as in the normal course vehicles do not collide with each other except when there is negligence. The question, thus, the consider in the present case is, whose negligence it was that caused this accident.

(3.) THE other claimants namely, Smt. Uttam Devi and her daughters being the mother and sister of Mr. Vinod Kumar Malik, deceased, blamed both the car driver and the bus driver for the accident. Negligence was imputed to them both.