important point
An appeal by the owner of the vehicle is maintainable despite the fact that in terms of an Award, he is to be reimbursed by the insurance company.

judgment

S.B. Sinha, J. —

1.Leave granted.

2. First respondent is the owner of a bus. Allegedly, owing to rash and negligent driving by the driver of the said vehicle, an accident took place wherein one Vadivelu, the predecessor in interest of the appellants died.

3.An application under Section 166 of the Act claiming compensation for a sum of Rs.25 lakhs was filed by the appellants in the Court of Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (Additional District Judge-cum-Chief Judicial Magistrate, Karur). A written statement was filed by the Insurance Company in the said proceedings. The same was adopted by the owner of the vehicle. Before the Tribunal, the appellants produced some documents to show that the income of the deceased was about 12,500/- per month. He is said to have been deriving income both as an agriculturist as also from his business as commission agent in the business of coconut.

4.The Tribunal, inter alia, keeping in view the fact that the Income Tax Returns were filed only after the death of the said Vadivellu, estimated at Rs. 9,600/- per month.

The High Court, however, estimated the income of the deceased to be around a sum of Rs. 4,000/- per month, from his agricultural operation and Rs. 3,000/- from his commission business, totalling a sum of Rs. 7,000/- per month and upon deducting 1/3rd thereof from the amount towards his personal expenses, the High Court held that his contribution to his family would come to about of Rs. 4,667/- per month. Applying the multiplier of 18, the loss of income was assessed at Rs. 10,08,072/-, instead and in place of Rs. 13,82,400/- as was found by the Tribunal.

5.Appellant is, thus, before us.

Despite service of notice, the first respondent has not appeared.

6.Mr. V. Krishnamurthy, the learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant, inter alia, would submit that a joint appeal by the owner of the vehicle and the Insurance Company was not maintainable. It was furthermore urged that the High Court without analysing the evidence on records has arbitrarily reduced the amount of income of the deceased from Rs. 9,600/- as was found by the learned Tribunal, to a sum of Rs. 7,000/- per month.

7.Mr. Ashok Kumar Sharma, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the second respondent, on the other hand, submitted that the appeal before the High Court in terms of Section 173 of the Act was maintainable. According to the learned counsel keeping in view the phraseology used in Section 173 of the Act, an appeal subject to the limitation provided under sub-Section (2) thereof would be maintainable against each and every award and, thus, if an appeal is maintainable at the instance of the Insurance Company, it matters little as to whether it was filed with the owner of the vehicle or not.

The learned counsel furthermore urged that the Tribunal has failed to take into consideration the fact that the documents filed by the claimants/appellants purporting to establish the quantum of income of the deceased being wholly unreliable, the same could not have been taken into consideration for the purpose of computation of income.

8.We may at the outset notice that the High Court was although of the opinion that no appeal would be maintainable at the instance of an insurance company unless permission of the court was obtained by it in terms of Section 170 Act, observed that the owner of the vehicle being an appellant, the appeal would be maintainable at his instance.

9.The relevant statutory provisions, being Sections 149(2), 170 and 173 may be noticed by us, which are as under :

“149. (2) No sum shall be payable by an insurer under sub-section (1) in respect of any judgment or award unless, before the commencement of the proceedings in which the judgment of award is given the insurer had notice through the Court or, as the case may be, the Claims Tribunal of the bringing of the proceedings, or in respect of such judgment or award so long as execution is stayed thereon pending an appeal; and an insurer to