BINOD KUMAR CHOUDHARY Vs. KAMAL NARAIN THAKUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal has been filed against the award of the Claims Tribunal, Madhubani, under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, dated 8.5.1995 and the order of review dated 9.1.1996 in Claim Case No. 13 of 1987 and Review Petition No. 33 of 1995 respectively.

(2.) The learned Tribunal had allowed the claim of the respondent No. 1 on account of the death of his son in a motor accident and had awarded Rs. 1,00,000 as compensation with interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum on the same from the date of filing of the petition. The appellant herein happens to be the owner of the vehicle involved in the accident.

(3.) A brief history of the case is like this. It appears that one young boy, Sanjay Kumar Thakur of Narpat Nagar, within the Police Station Sakri in the district of Madhubani met with an accident on 12.7.1987 in the forenoon, while he was standing near a road crossing at Sakri. It appears that a bus was standing on the road at that place and while the deceased Sanjay Kumar Thakur was standing on the left side of the road, a taxi, bearing registration No. BHQ 4681, came from behind and while swaying to overtake the bus standing there, hit the deceased and dragged him to some distance. So the boy was crushed and sustained serious injuries and immediately he was taken to a local clinic. Subsequently, his father (respondent No. 1) received information and he arrived and took the boy to Darbhanga Medical College Hospital for treatment, but he died there on the same day at about 9.30 p.m. Some persons had witnessed the incident and a case was also registered in the local police station at Sakri. Later the parent of the deceased, i.e., respondent No. 1 filed a claim petition before the District Judge, Madhubani, who happened to be the Claims Tribunal under the Motor Vehicles Act. The court earlier granted no fault claim of Rs. 25,000 to the claimants, which was paid by the insurance company and subsequently the claim petition was heard and the award in question was made. The vehicle in question, bearing No. BHQ 4681, a Matador, was owned by one Binod Kumar Choudhary, resident of Bara Bazar, Darbhanga (i.e., the appellant herein) and it was insured at the relevant time with the National Insurance Co. Ltd. with its head office at Calcutta and branch at Darbhanga. It appears that the notices were issued to the opposite parties by the Tribunal, and while the owner, opposite party No. 1, appeared and sought time to file written statement, he abstained from filing any written statement and contesting the claim. However, the claim case was contested by the insurance company, which also filed a written statement denying some parts of the allegations made in the claim application. However, the learned Tribunal accepted the plea of the claimants that the deceased had died in the accident, which occurred due to driving of the vehicle bearing No. BHQ 4681 in a public place and he died as a result of sustaining injuries in course of the incident. The Tribunal also held that the claimants being the parents of the deceased were entitled to receive the amount of claims. The learned Tribunal also observed that the deceased was a boy aged about 17 years only and he was a student of I.S.C. at the relevant time and the Tribunal had assessed the total loss at Rs. 1,00,000 and, accordingly, awarded the said amount, but in the original order the learned Tribunal did not pass any specific order as to who was liable to pay the amount of compensation. Therefore, the claimant filed a petition of review on 24.5.1995 praying therein to pass specific order that the part of amount of the award was to be paid by the owner of the vehicle and part of the amount by the insurance company. It was also pointed out that there were certain apparent mistakes in the order in question and, therefore, a prayer was made to review the order passed by the court on 8.5.1995.