FAO No. 2010 of 2011 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No. 2010 of 2011 Date of decision: 4.11.2011 Rani Singla and others ....Appellants Versus Ram Singh and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE JITENDRA CHAUHAN Present: Mr.Gaurav Jain, Advocate for the appellants Mr.CM Munjal, Advocate for respondent Nos. 1 and 2. Mr.DR Bansal, Advocate for respondent No.3. ***** Jitendra Chauhan, J.(Oral) The present appeal has been filed by the claimants/appellant seeking enhancement of compensation amount awarded by the learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Bathinda (for short 'the Tribunal'), vide award dated 13.10.2010 on account of the death of Jagan Nath. Learned counsel for the appellants contends that the learned Tribunal had framed a specific issue regarding the death of Jagan Nath. Further contends that on 4.10.2008 in a motor vehicular accident, the deceased and some other persons received injuries. He stated that the deceased remained admitted in hospital from 5.10.2008 to 13.10.2008, as per discharge summary Ex.C.26. The deceased was diagnosed a road side FAO No. 2010 of 2011 2 accident with blunt trauma, fracture of femur and closed fracture of shaft femur and he had undergone the operation for the said fracture as per the discharge summary dated 13.10.2008. Further contends that the learned Tribunal has awarded an amount of ` 62018/- regarding medical bills, but no amount has been awarded on account of death, even though, a specific issue was framed to this effect. On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondents stated that a categoric finding has been recorded by the learned Tribunal that the death is not connected with the accident, in view of the fact that the postmortem examination was not carried out upon the deceased to establish the factum of cause of death. Learned counsel for the Insurance Company has produced photostat copy of judgment dated 13.01.2011 of this Court, passed in appeal i.e. FAO No.160 of 2011, filed by the United India Insurance Company Ltd., arising out of the impugned award, wherein this Court has held that “the learned Tribunal has rightly awarded an amount of `62018/- to the claimants.” He argued that this appeal may also be dismissed, in view of the judgment referred above. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record. From the perusal of the record, it is revealed that the accident occurred on 4.10.2008. Jagan Nath Singla (since deceased) was admitted in Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana on 5.10.2008 and discharged on 13.10.2008 as per discharge summary Ex.C-26. He was discharged in a satisfactory condition. Thereafter, he died on 23.10.2008. No postmortem was carried out on the dead body of the deceased for FAO No. 2010 of 2011 3 ascertaining the cause of death. It is also not proved on record that he died due to accidental injuries. The learned Tribunal has rightly held that in the absence of postmortem report, it is impossible to say that Jagan Nath died due to the injuries received by him in the accident. Therefore, the learned Tribunal has rightly held that the death of Jagan Nath is not directly or indirectly attributable to the accident. Further, the expenses incurred on his treatment during his admission in the Hospital, are proved on record, and therefore, the learned Tribunal has awarded an adequate amount of `62,018/- to the claimants in this regard. As a sequel to the above discussion, this Court does not find any ground to interfere with the well reasoned findings recorded by the learned Tribunal. Consequently, the present appeal fails and the same is dismissed being devoid of any merit. 4.11.2011 (JITENDRA CHAUHAN) gsv JUDGE