- (1.) THIS is an appeal by the Petitioners whose claim for compensation under Section 110 -A of the Motor Vehicles Act arising out of accident on 17.12.1961 and resulting in injuries to them has been dismissed by the Claims Tribunal (First Additional District Judge, Gwalior) on the ground that they preferred it long after the prescribed period of limitation of 60 days from the date of accident, the claim having been preferred on 17.12.1962. The Tribunal rejected the petition of the Petitioners for condoning the delay on the ground that it did not disclose sufficient cause for the purpose.
(2.) ACCORDING to the Petitioners, after they were discharged from the hospital at Gwalior they left for their home town i.e. Bangalore and there they consulted their family lawyer, Mr. B. Venkata Rao, sometime in the month of January 1962 as to what steps they should take to seek redress for the injuries suffered in the accident, that the said lawyer advised them that the claim for compensation could be presented within one year and accordingly they got the said lawyer to serve the requisite notices of their claim upon the parties liable for the same and as they did not succeed in obtaining redress out of Court they reached Gwalior where they were advised by their lawyer Mr. P.L. Dubey, Advocate, that the claim ought to have been filed within 60 days of the accident. It was in these circumstances that they could not file the claim before 17.12.1962. The Tribunal held that wrong advice of the lawyer in the instant case would not furnish a sufficient cause to the Petitioners for claiming condonation of the delay. Accordingly, it rejected the petition as barred by limitation.
(3.) THE only question that falls for determination is whether, in the circumstances as aforesaid, the Tribunal was justified in not condoning the delay. In our view the Tribunal was right in not condoning the delay and dismissing the petition as barred by limitation. This appeal, therefore, has to be dismissed.;