DASRATH PRASAD Vs. CATHOLIC CHARITIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Addl. Claims Tribunal dismissed the claim preferred by the appellants on the ground of limitation. Admittedly the deceased Pankaj Kumar Sahu died in a road accident on 30.11.1986. Under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, the claim could have been preferred within six months from the date of accident. There was provision for condoning the delay if the claim was not filed within the period prescribed in the Act. The Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, was repealed by Section 217(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which came into force on 1.7.1989. The period of limitation for filing the claim petition both under the 1939 Act and the new Act is six months. In the instant case the claim petition was filed on 4.10.1989.

(2.) In view of the decision of the Supreme Court in Vinod Gurudas Raikar v. National Insurance Co. Ltd. 1991 ACJ 1060 (SC), the claim application was time-barred and since the maximum period of limitation prescribed under the new Act is one year which too had expired when the claim application was filed and there being no provision of condoning the delay the Addl. Claims Tribunal had no option but to dismiss the claim as time-barred.

(3.) During the pendency of this appeal Section 16(1)3) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, has been repealed by Section 53 of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 1994. The result of the amendment is that now there is no period of limitation prescribed for preferring the claim application.