IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BD.ASPUR CHHATTISGARH DivisionBeridh. MISELLANEOUS APPEAL (C) N0. - d / 3-— OF 2007 (MEMORANDUM OF APPEAL UNDER SECT10N 173 OF THE MOTOR VEHICLES ACT, 1988) A ELLANTS ^LAIMANTS ^-r Jainarayan, S/o Late BadriPrasad Ganda, aged about 18 years, Ku. Nirupa^ D/o Late Badri Prasad Ganda, aged about 20 years Ku. Satrupa, D/o Late Badri Prasad Ganda^ aged about 14 years ^4. Lekhram, S/o Late Badri Prasad Ganda, aged about 10 years, 5: Mahesh Kumar, S/o Late Badri Prasad Ganda, aged about 8 years, ^..-^ ' ^,..lfe'? .^" ^y'..^ ^"^ •^ 6,, Smt. Kamla Bai, W/o Late Badri Prasad Ganda, aged about 45 yeas [Appellant No. 3 to 5 being minor on behalfof through their legal guardian mother appellantNo. 6 Smt. Kamla Bai] All R/o'- Village - Chourbhatti, Police Station- Tehsil- Navagarh, District- Janjgir-Champa (C.G.) VERSUS RESPONDENTS NON-CLAIMANTS 1., Arjun S/o Mathura Prasad, aged about 20 years, R/o - Chief PIouse.Godri para, Chirmiri, Police Station - Chirimiri, District - Koriya (C.G.) 2^ Ravi Chopra, S/o B.P. Chopra, aged about 32 years, R/o - Godri para, Chirimiri, Police Station - Chirimiri, District- Koriya (C.G.) 3. The Oriental Insurance Company Limited through Branch - Ambikapur, Office address - Manendragarh Road, Ambedkar Chowk, Ambikapur, Distrlct - Surguja (C.G.) ^-!./' MEMORANDUM OF APPEAL UNDER SECTION 173 OF THE MOTOR VEHICLES ACT, 1988 HIGHCOURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR D.B.: Hon'ble Shri Justice I.M. Quddusi and Hon'ble Shri Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra Appellants Miscellaneous Appeal (C.) No.917 QL20Q7 Jainarayan and others versus Respondents Arjun and others Present: Shri Shivendu Pandya, counsel forthe appellants. Shri D.N.Prajapati, counsel for respondents No.1 and 2. Shri SudhirAgrawal, counsel for respondent No.3. Miscellaneous Appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act ORAL ORDER (Passedonl 3th April, 2011) Per I.IVI. Quddusi, J.: hleard. 2. This appeal has been preferred by the claimants against the award dated 27-4-2007 passed by the 2nd Additional Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Janjgir in Claim Case No.79/2007. 3. Case of the claimants, as stated in the claim petition, is that on the date of accident, i.e., 12-1-2006, in the evening, deceased Badri Prasad had reached on one side of the road near Kailash Hotel, Godaripara, Chirmiri. At that time, a Marshall Jeep bearing registration No.CG 16 A 0117, being driven by non-claimant No.1 Arjun rashly and n'egligently, dashed the deceased. As a result of the accident, the deceased died. The incident was reported to the Police Statrc>n Chirmiri. The claimants, i.e., children and wife of the m 2 deceased preferred an application under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (henceforth 'the Act') claiming compensation of Rs.21,00,000/-. 4 . The Claims Tribunal dismissed the claim of the claimants. 5. We have perused the impugned award as well as the record of the Claims Tribunal and found that issues, whether the deceased met with an accident caused by vehicle bearing registration No.CG 16 A 0117 and whether the deceased died as a result of that motor accident, were not framed by the Claims Tribunal. It also appears that the Claims Tribunal has not conducted a proper enquiry into the claim. 6. It has been provided in Rule 226 of the Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh Motor Vehicles Rules, 1994 that the Claims Tribunal shall obtain whatever information and documents which may be found necessary from the. police, medical and other authorities and proceed to award the claim whether the partieswho were given notice, appear or not, on the appointed date. Further, we cannot ignore the provisions of Section 168 of the Act, which provides that on receipt of an application for compensation made under Section 166 of the Act, the Claims Tribunal shall, after giving notice of the application to the insurer and after giving the parties (including the insurer) an opportunity of being heard, hold an enquiry into the claim or, as the case may be, each of the claims and, subject to the provisions of Section 162 may make an^award ^ determining the amount of compensation which appears to it to be ./..r^ 1 I .y ...; ^ '^/ '^ just. However, the Claims Tribunal has not conducted any enquiry in the manner indicated above. 7. In Raj Kumar vs. Ajay Kumar and another, 2010 (12) Scale 265, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held in paragraph 1 1 of the report thus (only relevant portion is extracted below): "11. The Tribunal should not be a silent spectator when medical evidence is tendered in regard to the injuries and their effect, in particular the extent of permanent disability. Sections 168 and 169 of the Act make it evident that the Tribunal does not function as a neutral umpire as in a civil suit, but as an active explorer and seeker of truth who is required to 'hold an enquiry into the claim' for determining the 'just compensation'. The Tribunal should therefore take an active role to ascertain the true and correct position so that it can assess the 'just compensation'. .........." 8. In view of the above, the Claims Tribunal should not have treated the claim petition as a civil suit and should not have dismjssed the claim petition in the manner in which it has been dismissed. It was the duty of the Claims Tribunal to cOnduct a proper enquiry into the claim and find out the truth and the victims should not have been denied their legitimate claim. 9. Therefore, the matter requires reconsideration at the end of the Claims Tribunal. 10. Accordingly, we allow the miscellaneous appeal in part, set aside the impugn^d aw^rd and remit the matter back to the Claims Tribunal for decision afresh in the light of the observations made B ^ }•/ \ Gopal 2.y above. Record of the Claims Tribunal be sent back. The parties shall appear before the Claims Tribunal on 10th Mav. 2011. Needless to mention that the parties shall be allowed to amend their pleadings, adduce further evidence, file documents or get the documents verified etc. and thereafter award shall be passed afresh. There shall be no order as to costs. —-—-— Sd/- LM.Quddusi Judge Sd/- Prashant Kumar Mishra Judge n il?¥e^...j lf<t^i "I