- (1.) THE United India Insurance Co. Ltd. is aggrieved by the award dated 12.11.2013 passed by MACT (Special Court Communal Riot Cases), Jaipur Metropolitan, whereby the learned Tribunal has granted an award of Rs.5,71,696/ - along with the interest of 6% per annum to the claimants -respondents.
(2.) THE brief facts of the case are that on 2.12.2009, Shankar Lal Soni registered an FIR at Police Station Jhotwara, wherein he claimed that on 15.11.2009, around 8:00 PM, his nephew, Devendra, informed him on phone that his son, Narendra Kumar Soni, and his friend Rinku @ Manish have met with a vehicular accident. He immediately rushed to the Hospital. There Rinku and Devendra told him that Rinku and Narendra Kumar Soni were riding on their motorcycle from Pandit Ji Ki Thadi to Pankha Side. While Narendra was driving the motorcycle, Rinku was sitting as pillion rider. Suddenly, a Maruti Car, bearing Registered No. RJ -18 -C -5525, came rashly and negligently, and collided with the motorcycle on the wrong side of the road. Consequently, Narendra suffered injury on his head, and suffered fracture on both his legs. Rinku suffered an injury on his head. Narendra continued to be at SMS Hospital from 15.11.2009 to 22.11.2009; he was in the S.K. Soni Hospital from 22.11.2009 to 25.11.2009. On the basis of this complaint, a formal FIR was chalked out. With the death of Narendra, claimants filed a claim petition before the Tribunal. In order to buttress their case, they examined three witnesses, and submitted few documents. The Insurance Company did not examine any witness. After going through oral and documentary evidence, the learned Tribunal granted the award as aforementioned. Hence, this appeal by the Insurance Company. The learned counsel for the appellant has raised the following contentions before this Court: - Firstly, there is an inordinate delay in lodging of the FIR. Despite the fact that the accident occurred on 15.11.2009, the FIR was not lodged till 2.12.2009. The inordinate delay has not been explained. Secondly, according to the Rojnamcha registered on 16.11.2009, filed by Shankar Lal Soni himself, the accident had occurred with an unknown vehicle. Therefore, the present offending vehicle has been falsely implicated in the case. Thirdly, due to the absence of Post Mortem Report, the cause of death is unknown. Therefore, it cannot be said that Narendra died due to vehicular accident. But, for medical bill, there is no evidence to show that Narendra was 24 years old at the time of his death, yet, a multiplier has been applied taking his age to be between ages of 20 -25 years.
(3.) HEARD the learned counsel for the appellant and perused the impugned award.;