THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE P. SWAROOP REDDY CIVIL MISCELLANEOUS APPEAL No.71 OF 2003 Dated:14.09.2010 Between: Smt. P.Kanaka Durga and others .. Appellants And The Managing Director, A.P.S.R.T.C., Musheerabad, Hyderabad .. Respondent JUDGMENT: 1. This Civil Miscellaneous Appeal is filed against the order in O.P.No.205 of 1997, dated 28.12.2001 passed by the III Member, Tribunal for Disciplinary Proceedings – cum - VIII Additional Chief Judge, City Civil Court, Hyderabad. Appellants are claimants and respondent – APSRTC is respondent in the O.P. before the Tribunal. 2. For the sake of convenience, the parties herein are referred to as they arrayed in the O.P. before the Tribunal. 3. The facts of the case, in brief, are as follows: Deceased was the husband of claimant No.1 and father of claimant Nos.2 and 3. Deceased was working as Superintendent in Directorate of Drugs Control Administration, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Vengal Rao Nagar, Hyderabad. On 09.02.1996 at about 10.00 A.M., the deceased boarded A.P.S.R.T.C. bus at Dilsukhnagar Bus Stand to go to his office, which is in bus Route No.107-V. During journey, on account of high speed and rash and negligent driving of the driver of the bus, deceased was thrown out from the bus at the turning of Moosarambagh Cross Roads, Hyderabad, and sustained serious injuries and became unconscious. An auto driver, who was passing by the side, shifted the deceased to Malakpet Police Station and from there he shifted him to Osmania General Hospital, where he was declared dead on 10.02.1996. The Police of Malakpet Police Station registered a case in Crime No.27 of 1996 under Section 174 Cr.P.C. Hence, the claimants claimed Rs.2,00,000/- towards compensation with costs and interest at the rate of 18% per annum. 4. Respondent–A.P.S.R.T.C. filed its counter denying the case of the claimants emphatically involvement of any of its bus in the accident. 5. On the basis of the above pleadings, the following issues were framed for trial by the Tribunal: “i) Whether the accident occurred on 09.02.1996 at about 10.00 A.M., was due to the rash and negligent driving of the driver of R.T.C. bus route No.107V? ii) Whether the petitioners are the legal heirs of the deceased? iii) Whether the petitioners are entitled for compensation? If so, to what amount? iv) To what relief?” 6. To substantiate their case, claimants got examined PWs.1 to 3 and got marked Exs.A-1 to A-7. On behalf of respondent, RW.1 was examined and no documents were marked. 7. Out of the witnesses examined on behalf of the claimants, PW.1 is claimant No.2, PW.2 is the Medical Officer, who conducted autopsy on the dead body of the deceased, and PW.3 is an eyewitness to the accident. The only witness examined on behalf of the respondent is the Traffic Inspector of the respondent Corporation. 8. Out of the documents filed on behalf of the claimants, Ex.A-1 is certified copy of the First Information Report, Ex.A-2 is the inquest report, Ex.A-3 is the final report of the police, Ex.A-4 is the death certificate issued by the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, Ex.A-5 is the legal heir certificate issued by the Mandal Revenue Officer, E.A-6 is the postmortem report issued by the Osmania Hospital, Hyderabad, and Ex.A7 is the paper publication in Eenadu daily newspaper. 9. On the basis of the material on record, the Tribunal dismissed the claim of the claimants holding that there was no proof that deceased died on account of the accident caused by the A.P.S.R.T.C. bus and there were no other details of the driver of the bus/vehicle etc. Aggrieved of the same, the present appeal is filed. 10. Now the point for consideration is whether there are any grounds for allowing the appeal? 11. There is no dispute that deceased died on or about 10.02.1996 at 4.00 A.M., in the Osmania General Hospital, on account of sustaining injuries. The question is whether the deceased died on account of a fall from the R.T.C. bus and whether the particular bus is identified. 12. Ex.A-1 First Information Report states that deceased died on account of a fall from the R.T.C. bus. Thus, this belated First Information Report does not say as to from which R.T.C. bus, the deceased has fallen down. 13. The evidence of PW.1, son of the deceased, is that on 09.02.1996 he along with his father started from their house to go to office and reached Dilsukhnagar Bus Stop. There, his father boarded bus and at about 11.30 A.M., the Malakpet police informed him that his father met with an accident and was admitted in Osmania General Hospital. They immediately rushed to the hospital, where his father was lying unconsciously with grievous injuries and he died on the next day at 4.00 A.M. Thus, when on 09.02.1996 itself at 11.30 A.M., PW.1 received information that the deceased sustained injuries, on account of a fall from a bus, he ought to have lodged a complaint on the same day. In his chief examination, he never stated as to how he came to know that his father sustained injuries on account of a fall from the bus. In fact, technically, in the entire evidence of PW.1 he never spoke about how the deceased fell down from the bus, but only spoke about the injuries sustained by him. In cross-examination he stated that he mentioned in Ex.A-1 that his father accidentally fell down from the moving bus and he further stated that at the guidance of the Police, he gave such a statement. Thus, evidence of PW.1 is absolutely of no use to show that the deceased fell down from the moving bus. 14. The evidence of PW.3, who is an eyewitness to the incident, is that he was working in Krupa Market, a wholesale Kirana shop at Malakpet. He knew the deceased and his family members and they used to visit his shop for purchasing provisions. On 09.02.1996, when he was going from Dilsukhnagar to Amberpet in an A.P.S.R.T.C. bus on route No.107-V, he saw the deceased in the same bus. The deceased was standing near the back door of the bus. At Moosarambagh Cross Roads, driver of the R.T.C., bus drove it at a high speed and in a rash and negligent manner. On account of that deceased was thrown out from the bus. In spite of himself and other passengers of the bus asking the driver to stop the bus, the driver did not stop it. He got down from the bus at Amberpet. On 07.10.2001, he went to a film at R.T.C. Cross Roads, where he met the son of the deceased, who informed him that deceased died in a road accident on 09.02.1996. His cross-examination shows that he has seen the deceased falling from the bus. His evidence is totally unbelievable. If he knew the deceased and his family members and when the deceased fell down from the bus and driver of the bus did not stop it, his obvious reaction would be to get the bus stopped or giving a complaint to the police immediately or at least to inform the family members about the deceased falling down from the bus. According to him, the bus was in a high speed and the deceased was thrown out from the bus, in which event, it would be, obviously, expected that deceased must have sustained serious injuries, in such a situation, if the driver of the bus did not stop it, perhaps, there was no possibility of no steps being taken by passengers in the bus particularly by PW.3, who knew the deceased and his family members. Thus, there is absolutely no satisfactory material to show that deceased fell down from a moving A.P.S.R.T.C. bus and the material on record is not in favour of accepting the version of the claimants about the deceased falling down from the bus. 15. The evidence of RW.1, Traffic Inspector of A.P.S.R.T.C., is that there was no complaint about any bus in route No.107-V being involved in an accident. There was no such complaint by the passengers of the bus or any other person about the accident. Even PW.1 did not give any such complaint. Hence, the evidence of RW.1 may not be of great importance. As there was no complaint or information to respondent-Corporation about any such accident, there was no possibility for the A.P.S.R.T.C. to know about the accident. 16. Learned counsel for the claimants contended that he called for the Movement Register of the relevant time from A.P.S.R.T.C., but the same was not produced. On account of non- production of the Movement Register, adverse inference can be drawn against the respondent. This contention cannot be accepted, as number of the bus was not given and there was no possibility of finding out anything from the Movement Register. Even assuming that the Movement Register reveals moving of a particular bus at the relevant time, there would not be any conclusive proof to show about the involvement of that bus in the accident, as there is no complaint about the involvement of only particular bus in the accident. If PW.3 was really present in the bus at the time of accident and saw the deceased falling down from the bus, he could have noted down the bus number and reported the matter to the police, but nothing is done. It is difficult to believe that thinking the accident to be a minor one, PW.3 ignored it, as according to PW.3, the bus was at a high speed and the deceased was thrown out from the bus, in such an event, he (PW.3) must have naturally thought that the deceased would sustain serious injuries. 17. Learned counsel for the claimants relied on a decision of the Supreme Court in Laxmibai v Karnataka State Road Trans. Corporation[1] contending that where the owner of the bus did not produce log-sheet and control charts to show that the bus did not ply on that road on that date, adverse inference has to be drawn. This decision is not applicable to the facts of the present case, as in this case no particular bus is identified to produce records pertaining to that bus. 18. In the circumstances, I find no grounds to interfere with the finding of the Tribunal. Therefore, the appeal is liable to be dismissed. 19. Accordingly, the Civil Miscellaneous Appeal is dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs. ___________________ P. SWAROOP REEDY, J 14.09.2010 KH [1] 2001 ACJ 1273