- (1.) A passenger bus belonging to the Sheikhupura Transport Company Ltd. met with an accident and two passengers were killed. Their widows and other heirs made claims for compensation before the Tribunal appointed under the Motor Vehicles Act. The bus was insured against third party risks necessary under the Motor Vehicles Act, the insurer being the Northern India Transporters Insurance Company. The Tribunal found that a sum of Rs. 8,000 was payable as compensation to one widow and Rs. 14,000 to the other, and directed under Section 96 of the Motor Vehicles Act that the whole of this compensation be recovered from the insurance company. Against that decision two appeals were filed by the insurance company and two cross-appeals by the claimants, who prayed for higher compensation. The appeals were heard in the first instance by one of us, and the main point taken on behalf of the insurance company was that the insurance concerning passengers was limited to the terms of the Motor Vehicles Act under Section 95 (2) and in terms of that section the liability of the insurer was limited to Rs. 20,000 in respect of all the passengers and it was further limited in the case of each injured or deceased passenger to Rs. 2,000. It was found that the question was sufficiently important to be considered by a larger Bench, and the appeals were, therefore, made over to a Division Bench, That Bench of which two of us were members, in turn, thought that this important question ought to be settled by a Full Bench, and the question of law has, therefore, come before us.
(2.) THE controversy turns on the meaning of Sub-section (2) of Section 95 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, and the precise question referred to us for decision runs thus : " If an insurance policy is taken out in respect of a passenger bus and is limited to the terms of Section 95 of the Motor Vehicles Act and the bus meets with an accident resulting in injuries to several passengers, is the liability of the insurer not to exceed Rs. 20,000 in respect of all the passengers taken together, and is it limited to Rs. 2,000 in respect of each injured passenger, and if so, how is compensation recoverable from the insurer to be apportioned among the injured persons ? "
(3.) THE second part of the question concerning apportionment presents no great difficulty and everybody before us is agreed that if there is to be an apportionment it should be in proportion to the compensation awarded by the Tribunal to each injured person. The first part of the question, however, is in serious controversy.;