HARBANS SINGH Vs. ATMA SINGH AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS judgment will dispose of two revision applications Nos. 671 and 680 of 1963, first by the driver (Harbans Singh) and the second by the owner (Baldev Mittar Bijli) of a goods motor vehicle, which, when driven by Harbans Singh applicant on March, 1960 overran Karam Kaur wife of Atma Singh Respondent and mother of the other Respondents, causing her death, from the award of the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, dated June 14, 1963, awarding Rs. 1,800/ - as compensation to Atma Singh Respondent. The children of the deceased were not granted any compensation because they were major.

(2.) THE version of the accident in the evidence of Gurbachan Singh, Tirath Singh and Atma Singh witnesses that while the last -mentioned witness was sleeping under a tent at Anandpur Sahib along with his deceased wife and other companions, the goods vehicle of the applicants came loaded with flour and, while trying to enter Anandpur Sahib area, the driver (Harbans Singh applicant) was not in a position to control it while taking it up on the height towards the Gurdwara and it instead of going upwards came back on the reverse and ran over the tent causing the death of the wife of Atma Singh Respondent, is a version which was accepted by Tribunal and of which the correctness has not been challenged in these revision applications.

(3.) IT was proved before the Tribunal that the goods vehicle owned by Baldev Mittar Bijli applicant and driven on the date of the accident by Harbans Singh applicant was not insured. It was the duty of the owner to insure it under Section 94 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (Act 4 of 1939), hereinafter to be referred as the Act, and, as he did not insure it, for that breach he has been liable to prosecution under Section 125 of the Act, but it is not quite clear at this stage whether he has or has not been prosecuted for that offence. In any event, the goods vehicle was allowed by Baldev Mittar Bijli applicant to be driven by Harbans Singh applicant without having been insured in accordance with the provisions of Section 94 of the Act.