RACHHPAL SINGH Vs. JASWINDER KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this common judgment, two appeals bearing FAO No. 2992 of 2015 titled, 'Rachhpal Singh vs. Jaswinder Kaur and others' and FAO No. 2231 of 2015 titled, 'Bhajan Singh versus Jaswinder Kaur and others' shall be decided as both the appeals involve similar set of facts and circumstances and same question of law arises for determination in both these appeals. For the sake of convenience, facts are being extracted from FAO No. 2992 of 2015 titled, 'Rachhpal Singh versus Jaswinder Kaur and others'.

(2.) Appellant-Rachhpal Singh, the registered owner of offending car bearing registration No. PB-29F-1685 and appellant-Bhajan Singh, The driver of offending car have filed the present appeals against the award dated 16/12/2014 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Moga (hereinafter referred to as 'the Tribunal'), whereby while allowing a claim petition filed under Section 166 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 for grant of compensation on account of death of Pawan Kumar, in a motor vehicle accident which took place on 10/03/2012, appellants-respondents No. 1 and 2 (in the claim petition), were held liable to make payment of the entire compensation amount. Liability of respondents No. 1 and 2 was held to be joint and several.

(3.) The Tribunal observed that after registration of FIR No. 25 dated 10/03/2012 under Sections 304-A, 279, 427 IPC, ASI Avnit Singh was appointed as Investigating Officer. He appeared as RW-5 and stated that after registration of FIR, he recorded the statement of the Napinder Singh son of Avtar Singh on 05/05/2012, under Section 161 CR.P.C. The certified copy of statement of Napinder Singh was proved as Ex. R-5. In his statement, Napinder Singh stated that on 09/03/2012, Bhajan Singh came to him and borrowed his car. He told that his son Jagdeep Singh had to go abroad and he had to drop his son at Amritsar airport. On 11/03/2012, Bhajan Singh came to his shop and told him that while he was coming back from Amritsar airport, in the area of village Lohara, his car met with an accident with a scooter. The scooter driver died at the spot. He further told that he left the car at the spot and ran away. He was searching for a respectable person who could produce him before the police. Further as per the recovery memo Mark-A Bhajan Singh had surrendered before the police. He had produced registration certificate of the car No. PB-29F-1685 which was in the name of Rachhpal Singh son of Harnam Singh. He surrendered his driving license No. 3998 which was verified from the DTO office. The driving license was valid up to 12/05/2015. Both the registration certificate and driving licence were taken into police possession. The driving licence was taken back from the Court by Bhajan Singh on the basis of order dated 18/10/2014 which is Mark C.