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2020 DIGILAW 508 (KAR)

Hanamanth And Others v. Bashrisab And Others

2020-02-20

S.R.KRISHNA KUMAR

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JUDGMENT S.R. Krishna Kumar, J. - All these three appeals arise out of the impugned judgment and award dated 26.03.2014 passed in MVC Nos. 84/2012, 85/2012 and 678/2012 by the Principal Senior Civil Judge and MACT No. V at Bijapur, whereby the Tribunal allowed the respective claim petitions filed by the claimants thereby awarding compensation in their favour towards injuries sustained by them in a road traffic accident that occurred on 12.12.2011. By the impugned judgment and award, the Tribunal came to the conclusion that the driver of the offending vehicle did not possess a driving licence and consequently, the Tribunal absolved the Respondent No. 2-Insurance Company of its liability to pay compensation and fastened the entire liability upon Respondent No. 1-onwer of the vehicle. 2. Aggrieved by the impugned judgment and award absolving the Insurance Company of its liability to pay compensation and also the quantum of compensation awarded in their favour, the respective claimants are before this Court by way of the present appeals. 3. I have heard learned counsel for claimants as well as learned counsel for Insurance Company and perused the material on record. 4. Learned counsel for the claimants submits that in view of the decision of the Apex Court in Pappu And others v. Vinod Kumar Lamba and another reported in 2018 (1) Supreme 137 and Gurmail Singh v. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Limited and another reported in 2019 ACJ 71 , it would be just and appropriate to invoke the principle of pay and recover thereby directing the Respondent No. 2-Insurance Company to pay compensation in favour of the claimant by reserving liberty in its favour to recover the same from the Respondent No. 1-owner of the vehicle. Learned counsel for the claimants also contends that having regard to the grievous and serious nature of injuries sustained by the claimant in the accident, the compensation awarded by the Tribunal is meager and inadequate and that the same requires enhancement by this Court. 5. Per contra, learned counsel for the Insurance Company would support the impugned judgment and award. 6. 5. Per contra, learned counsel for the Insurance Company would support the impugned judgment and award. 6. As rightly contended by the learned counsel for the claimants, in the light of the decisions of the Apex Court in Pappus case and Gurmail Singhs case supra, I am of the considered opinion that it would be just, fair and appropriate to invoke the principle of pay and recover thereby directing the Respondent No. 2-Insurance Company to pay compensation in favour of the claimant by reserving liberty in its favour to recover the same from the Respondent No. 1-owner of the vehicle. 7. Insofar as the quantum of compensation is concerned, having regard to the grievous and serious nature of injuries sustained by the claimant, I deem it just, fair and proper to award additional global compensation in favour of the claimants in addition to the compensation awarded by the Tribunal as hereunder: i) MFA No. 200017/2015 (MVC No. 85/2012)- Rs. 1,00,000/- ii) MFA No. 200018/2015 (MVC No. 678/2012)- Rs. 50,000/- iii) MFA No. 200016/2015 (MVC No. 84/2012)- Rs. 1,00,000/- The aforesaid global compensation in addition to the compensation awarded by the Tribunal would carry interest at 6% p.a., from the date of petition till realization. 8. In the result, I pass the following: ORDER i) MFA Nos. 200017/2015, 200018/2015 and 200016/2015 are partly allowed. Impugned Judgment and Award dated 1st April 2010 passed in MVC Nos. 84/2012, 85/2012 and 678/2012 by the Principal Senior Civil Judge and MACT-V at Bijapur, is set aside. ii) The claimants are entitled to additional global compensation together with interest at 6% p.a., from the date of the claim petition till realization in addition to the compensation awarded by the Tribunal as hereunder: a) The claimant in MFA No. 200017/2015 is entitled to additional enhanced compensation of Rs. 1,00,000/- with 6% interest in addition to the compensation awarded by the Tribunal payable by Insurance Company. b) The claimant in MFA No. 200018/2015 is entitled to additional enhanced compensation of Rs. 50,000/- with 6% interest in addition to the compensation awarded by the Tribunal payable by Insurance Company. c) The claimant in MVC No. 200016/2015 is entitled to additional enhanced compensation of Rs. 1,00,000/- with 6% interest in addition to the compensation awarded by the Tribunal payable by Insurance Company. 50,000/- with 6% interest in addition to the compensation awarded by the Tribunal payable by Insurance Company. c) The claimant in MVC No. 200016/2015 is entitled to additional enhanced compensation of Rs. 1,00,000/- with 6% interest in addition to the compensation awarded by the Tribunal payable by Insurance Company. iii) Respondent No. 2-Insurance Company is directed to pay the entire compensation comprising the compensation awarded by the Tribunal as well as the additional compensation awarded by this Court together with interest at 6% p.a., from the date of the claim petition till realization in favour of the claimants. iv) Liberty is reserved in favour of the Insurance Company to pay the compensation in favour of the claimants and recover the same from the owner of the vehicle.