NEW INDIA ASSURANCE COMPANYLTD Vs. SUMITRA DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is directed against the award and judgment of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (District and Sessions Judge), Hazaribagh, passed in Miscellaneous Case No. 361 of 1964 by which a sum of Rs. 20,000 has been assessed and allowed as the amount of compensation payable to the claimant by the New India Assurance Company Ltd. THIS company is the appellant before us with whom respondent No. 2, the Bihar Industries Private Ltd., Ramgarh Cantt., Hazaribagh, had insured his motor vehicle, namely, a motor truck, which bore registration No. WGE 1719, against third party risks.

(2.) THE case of the claimant, Sumitra Devi, a girl aged about six years, resident of Ramgarh in the district of Hazaribagh, which appears from her application to the Tribunal dated August 27/28, 1964, and the evidence of her father who has been examined as A.W. 2 is that while she was coming from her school in the afternoon of March 12, 1963, she was knocked down by a motor truck (WGE 1719) in front of the State Bank in the town of Ramgarh. As a result of the grievous injury she had suffered on her right leg, it had to be amputated from near her thigh above the knee region and that large sums of money had been spent on her treatment and a claim of Rs. 50,000 was made.

(3.) ON a consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, the Tribunal came to the conclusion that it was a proper case in which the delay in filing the application for the claim ought to be condoned and that it was a proper forum in which the application could have been made. It held that the claimant was involved in the accident, on the day, place, time and by the truck, as alleged by her. It further held that the truck belonged to V respondent No. 2, and, therefore, held that the claimant was permanently made a deformed person and she was thus entitled to receive a compensation of Rs. 20,000, as already stated.