MELA RAM AND OTHERS Vs. SATPAL AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the claimants, seeking enhancement of the compensation awarded to them by the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Yamuna Nagar, vide the impugned Award dated 06.10.2000. The claim petition before the Tribunal had initially been filed under Sec. 166 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988, but subsequently it was allowed to be amended to be instituted as one under Sec. 163-A of that Act.

(2.) The facts of the case, as set up by the claimants before the Tribunal, are that appellant-claimant No.1, along with his wife Banto Devi and one more lady, boarded Haryana Roadways bus bearing registration No.HR-20A-3801 on 11.07.1997 from the bus stand at Shahbad, at about 3:30 pm, to go to their village Mehmoodpur. They are stated to have occupied seats no.36 and 37 of the bus. When the bus reached near Prem Nagar, Ugala, at about 4:20 pm, a tyre of the bus is stated to have burst and the driver, i.e. respondent No.1 herein, suddenly applied the brakes, in a negligent manner, resulting in a heavy jerk, due to which Banto Devi fell out of the window of the bus and sustained a head injury and became unconscious. Allegedly, the driver and conductor of the bus (respondents No.1 and 2), did not bother to arrange for taking the injured to hospital and therefore she was taken in a passing jeep owned by one Gurdev Singh of village Dinapur, to Gupta Hospital, at Shahbad. She was admitted there but her condition continued to deteriorate and therefore, she was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, on 13.07.1997 but died on the way to that hospital. Consequently, her body was brought back to the village for the last rites.

(3.) It was further contended that the doctor at Shahbad not having sent any information to the police, no FIR was registered. Appellant no.1 herein, therefore, moved applications to the S.P.Ambala, the SHO, Police Station Mulana and the General Manager, Haryana Roadways, Yamuna Nagar, but even so, no FIR was registered. The claim petition was thereafter filed.