UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO. LTD Vs. SWARAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE award of Rs. 60,000/- as compensation to the claimant Swaran Singh, who sustained serious injuries when he was run over by a truck resulting in amputation of his right arm, warrants no interference in appeal.

(2.) ACCORDING to the claimant, on April 28, 1982 at about 9 A.M. he was walking on his correct side of the road near the railway crossing of Dhanowali in Jalandhar Cantonment when the truck PUQ-4665 came from behind and knocked him down a consequence of which his right arm was crushed and he was rendered unconscious. The truck driver-Darshan Singh was said to have caused this accident on account of his rash and negligent driving. The respondents denied that any accident had been caused by the truck PUQ-4665. The plea of the respondent No. 2 Satnam Singh-the owner of the truck-being that on the day of the accident, the truck was in fact out of Punjab.

(3.) A straight-forward and consistent account of the occurrence was given by both the claimant-Swaran Singh and AW 2 Chattar Singh. No reason or motive was even suggested to them for either of them to seek to falsely implicate the truck-driver and owner of the truck in this case. It is pertinent to note that though the plea had been taken in the written statement that the truck was out of Punjab on the day of the accident, no attempt was made to seek to establish this by bringing any evidence on record in this behalf. Indeed, RW 1-Satnam Singh, the truck-owner even withheld the log-book of the truck and there is no plausible explanation forthcoming to account for this.