Court No. - 4
Case :- FIRST APPEAL FROM ORDER No. - 691 of 2011 Appellant :- Oriental Insurance Company Limited Respondent :- Rajendra Prasad Verma & Another Counsel for Appellant :- Vivek Kumar Birla,P.N. Srivastava Counsel for Respondent :- R.K.Gupta,Satya Deo Ojha
Hon'ble Bala Krishna Narayana,J. Hon'ble Irshad Ali,J.
Heard learned counsel for the appellant and Sri S.D. Ojha, Advocate for the claimants- respondents.
This First Appeal From Order has been filed by Oriental Insurance Company Limited challenging the judgment and award dated 25.11.2010 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal/Addl. District Judge, Court No. 6, Meerut, by which the claim petition filed by the claimant-respondent no.
1 with the prayer to award a sum of Rs. 28,90,000/- as compensation for the injuries received by the claimant-respondent in an accident which had taken place due to rash and negligent driving by the driver of Jypsi, bearing Registration No. HR 23A/8273, which was insured with the appellant, was allowed in part against the appellant as well as opposite party no. 2 and the awarded amount of compensation was directed to be paid by the appellant insurance company to the claimants-respondents with a corresponding right to the appellant to recover the same from the the opposite party no. 2.
Learned counsel for the appellant submitted that there being no legally admissible evidence on record to establish that the vehicle was insured with the appellant insurance company, the Tribunal committed an apparent error of law in fastening the liability of payment of awarded compensation to the claimants-respondents on the applicant. He also submitted that the issue of contributory negligence has also not been properly examined by the Tribunal while holding the driver of the offending vehicle alone responsible for the accident.
Per contra Sri S.D. Ojha, learned counsel for the claimant-respondents submitted that even if the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the appellant are accepted to be correct, even then the impugned judgment and award is not liable to be set aside by this Court as the Tribunal while fastening the liability for the satisfaction of the award upon the appellant-Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. has given the appellant the right to recover the amount of compensation paid by it to the claimant/respondent from the respondent no.2, owner of the offending vehicle Sunil Kumar who has not filed any appeal against the impugned judgement and award and hence, this appeal is liable to be dismissed. He further submitted that the findings recorded by the Tribunal that the offending vehicle was insured with the appellant insurance company that the accident was caused due to rash and negligent driving of the offending vehicle by its driver are based on cogent evidence and do not suffer from any illegality or infirmity, which requires any interference.
Having heard the learned counsel for the parties present and perused the impugned judgement and award, we find that there is force in the submissions made by learned counsel for the claimants/respondents.
We accordingly dispose of this appeal with a direction that the appellant shall deposit the entire amount payable by it as compensation to the claimant/respondent no.1 before the M.A.C.T., Meerut, if not already deposited, within a period of four weeks from today. The amount so deposited by it shall not be released until the respondent no.2, owner of the offending vehicle furnishes security for the amount which the claimant/appellant has to pay to the claimant/respondent no.1. The appellant-United India Insurance Co. Ltd. shall file an application in this regard before the M.A.C.T, Meerut within the same period. The M.A.C.T., Meerut shall thereafter intitate necessary proceedings to enforce the presence of the respondent no.2, owner of the offending vehicle before it and require him to furnish the requisite security and thereafter the awarded amount of compensation shall be released in favour of the claimant/respondent no. 1.
The impugned judgement and award stands modified to the extent indicated herein above.
Order Date :- 27.3.2018 Pkb/