- (1.) This appeal is directed against an award passed by the accident Claims Tribunal, Aligarh dated 18.6.1995, whereby the Tribunal has awarded compensation to the claimants to the tune of Rs. 1,92,000/-.
(2.) Learned Counsel for the appellant made two-fold submissions. Firstly, it is contended that the accident having taken place on 10.2.91 but the claim petition was made on 14.5.96 and, therefore, the application was hopelessly barred by limitation and the Tribunal has not considered this aspect of the case.
(3.) A perusal of the award ex-facie demonstrates that on the pleading of the parties Issue No. 2 was framed in respect of limitation and the finding recorded by the Tribunal is that by the time the claim petition was filed the limitation prescribed under the Motor Vehicles Act for preferring the appeal was amended on 10.9.1994. Therefore, it is not that this point was not taken into consideration by the Tribunal. In a recent decision of the Apex Court in Dhanna Lal v. D.P. Vijaivargiya & Ors., 1996 4 SCC 652, it is ruled that application of amending Act to pending claim petition, claim petition filed beyond the period of limitation under unamended provision with a prayer to condone the delay and provision deleted during the pendency of the petition before the Tribunal claimant is entitled to the benefit of the amended provision. It is also ruled that the amending Act will not apply to a case where the petition filed beyond the limitation has been rejected and it attaches finality. In the instant case during the pendency of the claim petition the provision was amended and the said benefit is extended in favour of the claimants. Therefore, this plea is not available to the appellant. Accordingly, in our opinion, the Tribunal has rightly decided this issue in favour of the claimants.;