Research › Search › Judgment

Gujarat High Court · body

2017 DIGILAW 1575 (GUJ)

New India Assurance Co. Ltd. v. Hiraben Mavjibhai Parmar

2017-09-04

R.M.CHHAYA

body2017
ORDER : R.M CHHAYA, J. 1. The present appeal is preferred by the appellant-Insurance Company challenging interim award dated 30.03.2017 passed below Exhibit 3 by the 4th (Adhoc) Additional District Judge, Gandhinagar in Motor Accident Claim Petition No. 503/13, granting interim compensation of Rs. 25,000/- under Section 140 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short ‘the MV Act’). 2. Heard Mr. Sandip C. Shah, learned advocate for the appellant Insurance Company and perused the impugned award. 3. Mr. Shah, learned advocate for the appellant has, inter alia, contended that the award passed by the lower court is against the evidence on record. It was contended that the involvement of the vehicle in the accident is not duly proved. It was contended that the lower court has erred in holding the appellant insurance company liable to pay compensation as the vehicle was driven by a minor without any license which is against the conditions of the insurance policy. It was further contended that the driver has used the vehicle contrary to the terms of the policy and against the provisions of law and hence insurance company cannot be held liable to pay the compensation. 4. Since this appeal against interim award passed under Section 140 of the Motor Vehicles Act wherein full fledged trial is not provided and there appears no provision of adducing and leading oral as well as documentary evidence as it is to be done while carrying out the full fledged trial, whenever the learned Tribunal has already fastened the liability upon the appellant-Insurance Company and that too at the interim stage, let the decision rendered by the learned Tribunal be considered as tentative decision at this stage. 5. Therefore, the issue raised by the learned advocate can only be adjudicated at the stage of full fledged trial. This issue cannot be decided at the interim stage and taking into consideration the intention of legislature for interim award, the appellant is at liberty to raise such issue while defending the main claim petition and the Tribunal shall decide the same on its own merits without being influenced by the decision rendered by the Tribunal itself while considering the application under Section 14 0 of the MV Act. 6. 6. However, the Insurance Company shall be at liberty to agitate the said contention during the course of trial of main claim petition and at that time if findings goes in favour of present appellant-Insurance Company, in that case, learned Tribunal shall adjust the interim award passed by the learned Tribunal and further the learned Tribunal is directed not to treat the aforesaid observations as constructive res judicata. 7. Since this is an appeal against the interim award and main claim petition is pending before the learned Tribunal, it appears just and proper to dispose of this appeal at the admission stage with a direction to the learned Tribunal to decide the main claim petition as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of six months from the date of receipt of this order. 8. With the aforesaid observation and direction, the present appeal is disposed of without going into the merits of the matters keeping open to the learned Tribunal to adjudicate the issue raised in the matters at the time of trial in main claim petition. While considering the main claim petition, the learned Tribunal shall afford reasonable opportunity to the rival parties to proceed so far as the controversy raised in this matter is concerned and the learned Tribunal shall decide the said issue without being influenced by any of the observations made by this Court at this stage. 9. The appellant shall deposit awarded amount within six weeks from the date of order and out of which 70% shall be invested in fixed deposit and 30% shall be/given to the claimants on proper verification. 10. As the main appeal is disposed of, no order is required to be passed in Civil Application and consequently, the same is disposed of.