- (1.) This is an appeal under Article 133 of the Constitution of India read with Order XV Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules,1966 on a certificate granted by the Bombay High Court under Article 134A(b) of the Constitution. The appellant is the insurance company and it seeks to assail the judgment and order passed by the High Court in an appeal from a motor accident claim case. In order to properly appreciate the issue in regard to which the High Court has granted the certificate to appeal, it would be useful to take note of some basic facts of the case.
(2.) In the early hours of October 29, 1987 a petrol tanker bearing registration no.MXL7461, was proceeding on National Highway 4, coming from the Pune side and going towards Bangalore. As it reached near village Kavathe, in the district of Satara, Maharashtra, a truck, bearing registration no.MEH4197, laden with onions, was coming from the opposite direction. At the point where the two vehicles crossed each other, there was a pile of rubble on the left side of the road. As the two vehicles crossed each other, the rear right side of the petrol tanker was hit by the rear left side of the truck. As a result of the impact, the petrol tanker was thrown off the road and it came to rest on its left side/ cleaner's side on the kutcha ground, about 5 feet below the road. As a result of the collision and the falling down of the petrol tanker on its side, petrol started leaking from the tanker. The tanker driver was unable to stop the leak even though he tried to tighten the lid. The accident took place at around 3:15am. Shortly after the accident, another tanker, coming from the Bombay side passed by. In that tanker, apart from the driver, there was also an officer of the Indian Oil Company. Both of them assured the driver of the fallen down tanker that they would report the accident at the police station and asked him to wait near the place of the accident. Later on, yet another tanker from Sangli arrived at the spot and then the cleaner of the ill-fated tanker and the owner of the Sangli tanker together went to village Kavathe in search of a telephone to inform the tanker owner about the accident. After they came back from the village all of them, the driver and the cleaner of the tanker that had met with accident and the owner, the driver and the cleaner of the tanker coming from Sangli waited near the accident site. At daybreak, the local people started collecting near the fallen down tanker and some of them brought cans and tried to collect the petrol leaking out from the tanker. The driver of the tanker tried to stop them from collecting petrol or even going near the tanker, explaining to them that doing so would be risky and dangerous. No one, however, listened to him and he was even manhandled. In the melee, the petrol caught fire and there was a big explosion in which 46 persons lost their lives.
(3.) The heirs and legal representatives of those people who died at the accident site filed claim petitions for compensation under section 110A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 before the MACT, Satara, against the owner of the petrol tanker and its insurer, the present appellant. In all the cases, claims were also made for payment of Rs.15,000/- as no fault compensation under section 92A of the Act. The owner of the tanker and the insurer (the respondents before the Tribunal) contested the claim petitions filed by the applicants under section 92A of the Act and questioned the jurisdiction of the Claims Tribunal to entertain such petitions on the ground that the fire and the explosion causing the death of those who had assembled at the accident site could not be said to be an accident arising out of the use of a motor vehicle. The Claims Tribunal upheld the objection raised by the insurer and the owner of the petrol tanker, and by a common order dated December 2, 1989, dismissed all the claim petitions filed under section 92A of the Act on the ground that the fire and the explosion could not be said to be accident arising out of the use of the petrol tanker and hence, the provisions of section 92A of the Act were not attracted. The Claims Tribunal pointed out that there was a time gap of about 4 hours between the tanker meeting with the road accident and the fire and explosion of the tanker and there was absolutely no connection between the road accident and the fire accident that took place about 4 hours later. The Claims Ttribunal also observed that the local people were trying to steal petrol from the petrol tanker and the fire and the explosion were the result of their attempt to steal the petrol leaking out from the tanker. In other words, it was the people who had assembled at the accident site and some of whom eventually died as a result of it who were responsible for causing the fire and explosion accident and the later accident had no causal connection with the earlier road accident of the tanker. The fire and the explosion could not be said to be an accident arising out of the use of the tanker. Against the order of the Claims Tribunal passed on December 2, 1989, appeals were filed before the High Court. One such appeal was filed by Vatschala Uttam More, whose son Deepak Uttam More was one of the persons who died as a result of injuries caused by the fire and explosion of the petrol tanker. A learned single judge of the High Court allowed the appeal and by judgment dated February 5, 1990, reversed the order passed by the Claims Tribunal. Against the decision of the single judge, the owner of the petrol tanker and the insurance company filed a Letters Patent Appeal which was dismissed by a division bench of the High Court by judgment dated August 16, 1990.;