IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA. CWP No. 9087/2011 Decided on:19.10.2011 _____________________________________________ Oriental Insurance Company Limited. …Petitioner. Versus Smt. Prem Lata and others. …Respondents. ________________________________________________________ Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Kurian Joseph, Chief Justice. Hon’ble Mr. Justice Rajiv Sharma, Judge. Whether approved for reporting?1 No For the petitioner : Mr. Lalit Kumar Sharma, Advocate. For the Respondents: Nemo. _____________________________________________________ Justice Rajiv Sharma, Judge (oral). Present petition is directed against the award dated 21.4.2011 passed by the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal-III, Distict Kangra in MACP RBT No. 194- B/09/10. 2. Material facts necessary for the adjudication of this petition are that accident took place on 12.11.2008. Deceased Ankush was standing on the road side on 12.11.2008. He was hit by a vehicle driven by Rajesh Kumar. F.I.R. bearing No. 150/2008 Ex.PW-2/A was registered at Police Station, Baijnath. Deceased was 22 years of age. The post-mortem was conducted by PW-1 Dr. 1 Whether reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2 D.D. Rana vide post mortem report Ex.PW-1/A. Claim petition was filed by the parents of the deceased. Motor Accident Claims Tribunal awarded a sum of Rs. 3,50,000/- to the claimants alongwith interest @ 7% from the date of filing of the petition till the deposit of the same in equal shares. Petitioner-company was made liable to pay the compensation amount vide award dated 21.4.2011. 3. Mr. Lalit Kumar Sharma has strenuously argued that the vehicle involved in the accident, as per F.I.R. Ex.PW-2/A was HP-37A-5580 and not HP-37A-5850 and thus according to him, the petitioner-company was not liable to pay the compensation. 4. We have heard Mr. Lalit Kumar Sharma and gone through the award and evidence carefully. 5. Copy of F.I.R. is Ex.PW-2/A. PW-2 MHC Duni Chand has testified that the F.I.R. was registered against Rajesh Kumar for offence punishable under sections 237 and 304-A of the Indian Penal Code. He clarified that later on it transpired that the correct number of the vehicle involved in accident was HP-37A-5850. PW-3 Suresh Chand is an independent witness of the accident. According to him, he was standing outside his shop and vehicle No. HP-37A-5850 came at a high speed from 3 Palampur side driven by Rajesh in a rash and negligent manner. Vehicle hit Ankush. He was standing on the left side of the road. He was dragged upto 20-25 feet. The post-mortem was conducted by PW-1 Dr. D.D. Rana. Claimant Vinod Kumar has appeared as PW-2. Learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal has applied multiplier of 18 at the age of 22. 6. We are of the considered view that only for the reasons that initially in F.I.R. Ex.PW-2/A, the number of vehicle was written as HP-37A-5580 instead of HP-37A- 5850 will not absolve the insurance-company from its liability. The vehicle number was later on corrected to HP- 37A-5850 as per statement of PW-2 MHC Duni Chand. Statement of PW-2 Duni Chand has been duly corroborated by PW-3 Suresh Chand, who is an independent eye witness. 7. Accordingly, in view of the observations and discussions made hereinabove, there is no merit in the petition and the same is dismissed, so also the pending application(s), if any. No costs. (Justice Kurian Joseph), Chief Justice. (Justice Rajiv Sharma), Judge. 19.10.2011 *awasthi*