MURTI DEVI Vs. SURESH KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been directed against the award dated 6.11.1992, passed by the M.A.C.T., Kurukshetra, who dismissed the petition under section 166 read with section 140 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, filed by Murti Devi (widow), Upinder Singh alias Lovely and Arshinder Singh alias Arshi (minor sons) of late Kaka Singh against Suresh Kumar (driver), Naranjan Bansal (owner) and National Insurance Co. Ltd.

(2.) The brief facts of the case are that a claim petition was filed under sections 166/140 of the Act by the claimants, now appellants, and they sought compensation to the tune of Rs. 7,00,000 on account of death of Kaka Singh, who was working as Asstt. District Attorney at Kurukshetra at the relevant time on 24.8.1990, when the accident took place. Respondent No. 1 Suresh Kumar was driving the offending vehicle which is owned by respondent No. Respondent Nos. 1 and 2 filed separate written statements. They admitted the fac-tum of accident but denied the factum of negligence on the part of respondent No. 1. The insurance company filed an application under section 170 of the Act and alleged that since there is collusion between the claimants and owner and driver of the vehicle, therefore, it may be permitted to take the defences available to the driver and owner of the offending vehicle. The permission was granted by the Tribunal. The insurance company denied the case of the claimants as a result of which the Tribunal framed the following issues:

(3.) The parties led evidence in support of their case and on conclusion of the proceedings, issue No. 1 was decided against the claimants and in favour of insurance company. Issue Nos. 2 and 3 were decided in favour of the claimants. Issue No. 4 was decided against the claimants and as a result of findings given by Tribunal under issue Nos. 1 and 4, the claim petition was dismissed. Otherwise, the Tribunal assessed the compensation at Rs. 3,84,000.