ORIENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY Vs. MOHAN LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE appeals have been filed under Section 110D, Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 against the common award passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Udaipur dated August 12,1985. The facts of the cases giving rise to these appeals may be summarised thus.

(2.) ON June 26,1980, a head-on collision took place in between Taxi Car No. RST 6027 and Tanker No. DHL 2454 near the Village Lava on Kherwara-Udaipur road. In the accident, Taxi Car passengers, namely, Vishnu Kumar, Saffuddin, Laluram Shivnath Singh and Ramesh Chandra died and Vidhya Devi was injured. Both these vehicles were insured with the Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. (appellant and respondent No. 4). The Tanker was owned by M/s Das Transport Company, Shakur Basti, New Delhi (respondent No. 2) and it was being driven by its driver Thakur Das. The Taxi Car was owned by Modh. Rashid (respondent No. 6) and it was being driven by its driver Vijay Singh. Five Claims Petitions were filed by the legal representatives of the aforesaid deceased passengers of the Taxi Car. The injured Vidhya Devi also filed a claim petition. They were contested by all the opposite parties after framing necessary issues and recording the evidence of the parties, the learned Tribunal awarded the following amounts: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_452_TLRAJ0_1991.htm</FRM>

(3.) IT has been contended by the learned Counsel for the appellant that the learned Tribunal has seriously erred to make the appellant liable in excess of Rs. 50,000. He contended that according to the provisions of Section 95 (2)(b), Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 the Insurance Company was liable to pay compensation to the tune of Rs. 10,000/- in respect of each passenger of the Taxi car subject to the total limit of Rs. 50,000 and Under Section 95(2)(a), it was liable to the maximum extent of Rs. 50,000/- only for the negligence of the Tanker driver. He relied upon M.K. Unni Mohd. v. P.A. Ahmed Kutta AIR 1987 SC 2153 : (1987) 1 ACC 262.