AGARWAL, CJ. - (1.) THIS is a special appeal under section 18 of the Rajasthan High Court Ordinance against the judgment of the learned Single Judge dated January 9, 1984.
(2.) ON 13.8.1977, an accident occurred between the Motor Vehicle Truck No. MPN 5606 and the Scooter No. RJY 6850 which was being driven by Subhendra Bhushan Acharya alongwith Gyan Chand, who was sitting on the pillion near village - Palasiyakheda Ganeshji on Ajmer- Jaipur road which is a part of National Highway No. 8. In the said accident, Subhendra Bhushan expired on the spot and Gyan Chand expired while being carried to the hospital from the place of accident. As a result of the accident, two claim petitions were filed one No. 62/77 by Smt. Lad Kanwar and others-respondents Nos. 1 to 3 and the other being No. 7/78 by Smt. Shakuntala Acharya and four others before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (District Judge), Ajmer against Pritam Singh, the owner of the motor vehicle-respondent No. 4 and Ram Chandra, the driver of the said vehicle-respondent No. 5. The New Indian Assurance Company Ltd. was added as a respondent. Both the claim petitions were allowed by a single Award on 12.2.1980. The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (hereinafter to be referred to as 'the Tribunal') allowed Rs. 1,72,520/- in favour of Lad Kanwar and others-respondent No. 1 to 3 and a sum of Rs. 2,05,520/- in favour of Smt. Shakuntala Acharya and others. The Tribunal further held that since the liability of the New India Assurance Company Ltd. was confined to the amount of Rs. 50,000/-, it apportioned the same in the sum of Rs. 23,238/- to be paid to the respondents Smt. Lad Kanwar and others and a sum of Rs. 26,762/- to be paid to Smt. Shakuntala Acharya and others. Being aggrieved, two appeals were preferred by the motor vehicle owner Pritam Singh- one in the claim petition No. 62/77 against Smt. Lad Kanwar & Ors. and the other appeal No. 91/80 in respect of the Award in claim petition No. 7/78. In both the appeals, the New India Assurance Company Ltd. was added as a respondent. Smt. Lad Kanwar and others-respondents Nos. 1 to 3 preferred cross objections claimed that the Award passed in their favour be enhanced to Rs. 2,35,000/- and whole of the Award be paid to them by the New India Assurance Company Ltd. In the cross objections, interest was also claimed.
(3.) PRITAM Singh's appeal preferred against Smt. Shakuntala Acharya and others was dismissed while the appeal filed against Smt. Lad Kanwar and others also met the same result, but the cross objections preferred by Smt. Lad Kanwar and others-respondents Nos. 1 to 3 were allowed, as a result of which, the amount of compensation was enhanced to Rs. 1,98,360/-. The learned Single Judge further awarded interest at the rate of Rs. 12% per annum from the date of application i.e. 31.10.1977 till the date of realization. The learned Single Judge reversed the judgment of the Tribunal about liability and held that the entire sum was payable by the New India Assurance Company Limited. Against the judgment of the learned Single Judge, this special appeal has been filed praying for reversal of the judgment of the learned Single Judge on the ground that since the liability of the New India Assurance Company was limited to Rs. 50,000-/ under the policy, the direction that the entire sum was payable by it was illegal and wrong. Mr. R.M. Lodha, learned counsel for the respondents raised a preliminary objection about the maintainability of the special appeal urging that under section 18 of the Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, no appeal could be filed by the New India Assurance Company Limited. The basis of his submission was that under section 110-D of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, the Legislature has provided only one appeal against the judgment of the Claims Tribunal and as the Motor Vehicles Act regulating the procedure of compensation was exhaustive and laid down the filing of one appeal, the special appeal was incompetent and was liable to be dismissed. The emphasize of the learned counsel for the respondent was on the words "aggrieved by an award of a Claims Tribunal may, within ninety days from the date of award, prefer an appeal to the High Court". ;