NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO. LTD. Vs. SUNITA PRADHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Two Appeals, being MAC App. No.12 of 2024 and MAC App. No.13 of 2024, assailing the Judgments, both dtd. 21/3/2023, of the Learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, at Gangtok, Sikkim, (hereinafter, the 'MACT'), in MACT Case No.48 of 2019 (Sukmit Thapa vs. New India Assurance Co. Ltd. and Another) and MACT Case No.49 of 2019 (Sukmit Thapa vs. New India Assurance Co. Ltd. and Another) respectively, are being disposed of by this common Judgment, as they concern a single motor vehicle accident, in which the children (son and daughter), of the Claimant perished.

(2.) In MAC App. No.13 of 2024, the motor vehicle accident, involving a car (Maruti 800), snuffed out the life of eighteen year old, Romila Thapa, the daughter of the Claimant. She was travelling in the ill-fated vehicle with her cousin, her neighbour and her brother, who was driving the vehicle, when it went off the road near Singtam, East Sikkim, around 05.00 a.m, on 31/8/2005. The accident resulted in the fatality of all the occupants of the vehicle and their bodies remained unrecovered. Although the vehicle was recovered, the documents remained untraced. A Claim Petition under Sec. 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter, the 'MV Act'), seeking compensation of a sum of Rs.9,89,800.00 (Rupees nine lakhs, eighty nine thousand and eight hundred) only, before the Learned MACT, was filed by the Claimant, where the Appellant was arrayed as a Respondent. The Appellant contested the Claim Petition before the Learned MACT inter alia, on grounds that, as the Claimant was the registered owner of the accident vehicle, the deceased being her daughter had stepped into the owner's shoes and therefore did not qualify as a third party, thus disentitling the Claimant to compensation. The deceased driver did not have a driving licence and in the facts of the case, there was neither any statutory liability nor contractual obligation, on the part of the Insurance Company, to pay compensation to the Claimant or to indemnify the owner of the vehicle.

(3.) The Learned MACT on consideration of the pleadings of the parties, settled the exact same issues for determination in both the cases, i.e., MACT Case No.48 of 2019 and MACT Case No.49 of 2019, save for issue no.2;