DINANATH JHA Vs. VIJAY KUMAR MAHASETH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BOTH these appeals arise out of the same judgment and Award of the court below and that being so, they have been heard together and are disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) THE appellants in these two appeals, namely, M.A. 56 and M.A. 57 of 1982, are the parents of two boys, namely, Amarnath Jha and Gulab Sah, respectively, who were admittedly run over by an oil -tanker bearing No. BRG 3727 and consequently died on 7 -9 -1977 at 8 -30 P.M. on a road running north to south near Madhubani Railway Station. Respondent No. 1 is the owner of the oil -tanker and Respondent No. 2 is the insurance company which had sold insurance policy covering such an accident. A claim case for Rs. 25,000/ - as compensation to the parents of each of the deceased was filed under Section 110 of the Motor Vehicles Act. It may be appropriate to state here that the fact that the sons of the appellants died on being run over by the oil -tanker is not denied.

(3.) THERE are two versions of the occurrence. The version put forward by the appellants was that the two victims were coming from the opposite direction when they were dashed by the tanker which was travelling at some speed and they came under its wheel to meet their hoary fate. The version of the Respondents is that the tanker was being driven at a speed of 15 Kilometres per hour which was under the circumstance not an act of rashness when the two victims were travelling on the flank of the road from the opposite direction on a cycle ridden in at randum, dashed against a chowki on the road, came under the rear wheel of the tanker unnoticed by the driver and were thus crushed to death. The Respondents claim that there was no rashness on the part of the driver at all.