K.C.AGRAWAL, J. - (1.) THIS is an appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 directed against the judgment passed by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Sikar passed in MACT Petition No. 84 of 1989 awarding Rs. 12,500/ - to the appellants, who are the dependants of the deceased, Gulab Singh, having died in an accident in between a jeep bearing No. RRB 8505 and bus No. RRM 1082 on the 11th August, 1989. As a result of the two vehicles colliding, Gulab Singh, the husband of the appellant No. 1, and father of the appellant Nos. 2 to 4, driving the jeep aforesaid, received serious injuries and died in the hospital on being taken there for treatment. The claim of the appellants was that accident occurred due to the sole and exclusive negligence of the driver of the aforesaid bus belonging to the Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (for short 'the Corporation').
(2.) DURING the pendency of the claim petition an application under Section 140 of the Motor Vehicles Act was moved for payment of Rs. 25,000/ - as no fault compensation against the Corporation. The application was contested by the Corporation, inter alia, on the ground that the accident occurred not due to the negligence of the driver of the Corporation but because of Gulab Singh, who was driving the jeep at the time of accident. The Corporation also alleged that as insurance company with which the jeep was insured, had not been impleaded as a party in the claim petition as well as in the application under Section 140 of the Act, the application was liable to be rejected on that ground. Alternatively, the plea taken was that no fault compensation was liable to be divided amongst the two joint tortfeasors and that the Corporation could be made liable to pay Rs. 12,500/ - only and not Rs. 25,000/ -.
(3.) THE Tribunal held that the accident since had occurred because of a collision of the jeep as well as the bus of the Corporation, liability of no fault compensation payable under Section 140 of the Act had to be divided amongst them and the Corporation could be made liable to payment of only Rs. 12.500/ -.;