NATIONAL INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. HARIMOHAN SAHU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, the insurer challenges the award of the 1st Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Cuttack, awarding a sum of Rs. 2,00,000 to claimant -respondent No. 1.

(2.) THE claimant is the son of the deceased who was a Government servant and drawing a salary of about Rs. 1,600 per month at the time of his death. On 28.1.1993, the deceased was proceeding from Marsaghai to Mahakalpada on foot. At that time autorickshaw bearing registration No. OR -05A -2568 belonging to the present respondent No. 2 came from behind and knocked down the deceased who sustained grievous head injury along with fracture and other injuries because of the accident. Subsequently, the deceased was removed to the S.C.B. Medical College and Hospital where he succumbed to the injuries. Claim application was filed claiming Rs. 2,00,000 as compensation. The owner as well as the insurance company in separate written statements denied the allegations made in the claim application.

(3.) IT was first contended by the learned Counsel for the appellant that the vehicle had been registered as a pick -up van and insured as such, whereas the claimant claimed that the accident was caused by an autorickshaw. It is, therefore, submitted that the accident in question had not been caused by the vehicle which had been insured with the insurance company, but had been caused by some other vehicle which was an autorickshaw. It was alternatively contended that since the policy related to a pick -up van, the insurance company would not be liable for the accident caused by an autorickshaw. From the evidence on record, it is apparent that the vehicle having registration No. OR -05A -2568 caused the accident and the very same vehicle had been insured with the insurance company. It is well -known that a vehicle which is described as pick -up van and runs on three wheels is similar to an autorickshaw which also runs on three wheels and it is very easy to describe a pick -up van as an autorickshaw. The giving of this nomenclature as autorickshaw is immaterial. As a matter of fact, in the Motor Vehicles Act, no distinction is maintained between a pick -up van and an autorickshaw and all such vehicles having unladen weight up to a particular limit are described as light motor vehicles. The certificate of registration and fitness which has been marked as Exh. B has described the vehicle as a pick -up van, but in common parlance such a pick -up van can also be described as an autorickshaw. Technically such vehicle comes within the description of a light motor vehicle. Since admittedly the vehicle bearing No. OR -05A -2568 had been insured and the evidence on record indicated that vehicle bearing the same number had caused the accident, there cannot be any doubt that the vehicle which caused the accident was, in fact, insured with the insurance company. For the said reasons, I do not find any merit in the first contention.