Judgment :

Leave granted.

The Insurance Company is before us, aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the judgment and order dated 07th February, 2006 passed by a Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Indore Bench, Indore in M.A. No.1377 of 2003, whereby and whereunder the High Court has modified the judgment of the Motor Accident claims Tribunal, Indore (for short the Tribunal) exonerating the Insurance Company-appellant herein from paying any amount of compensation passed in Claim Case No. 285 of 1997 awarding a total sum of Rs.3,12,000/-with interest to the claimants for the death of one Israel, in a motor vehicles accident holding that the Insurance Company is liable to pay the compensation to the claimants.

Facts of the case giving rise to this appeal are:

The deceased-Israel was travelling in a Jeep bearing No.MPA-09-1658 on 26.08.1995. The said Jeep collided with a truck bearing No.MPF 07158 and Israel died of the injuries suffered by his at the site of accident. His family members filed an application under Section 166, 140 of the Motor Vehicles Act (for short the Act) before the Tribunal for compensation.

The appellant raised a contention in the said proceeding that since the driver of the jeep was not responsible for causing the said accident, it was not liable to pay any compensation to the claimants.

The Tribunal by reason of the aforementioned award, inter alia, held in paras 22 & 23 as under:

"22. Therefore due to want of averments of Petitioners in the application and from the certified copy of charge sheets Ex.P-1 to Ex.P-5 produced by the Petitioners, the Petitioners remained successful in proving that accident occurred due to rash and negligent driving of truck by opposite party No.4.

23. Therefore on the basis of evidence produced, the Petitioners remained successful in proving their case against opposite party No.3 and 4 in lieu of opposite party No.1 and 2, and as per the record the jeep owner Raees Khan and Insurance company cannot be held accountable to pay the compensation amount as the driver of jeep Israeel was not driving his jeep rashly and negligently and he had no fault."

It was also held by the Tribunal that as the Insurance Company is not held accountable for payment of compensation amount, it is entitled to receive the amount of Rs.25,000/-, deposited with the Tribunal by an interim order, from the claimants with interest at the rate of 9% per annum. However, an award for a sum of Rs.3,12,000/-was passed against the driver and owner of the truck in question.

Claimants, however, preferred an appeal against the said award.

The High Court by reason of the impugned judgment set aside that part of the order of the Tribunal whereby the appellant herein was exonerated from payment of any liability for reimbursement of the claim so far as the driver and owner of the jeep were concerned, stating:

"7. So far as finding in relation exonerating of Insurance Company is concerned, we are inclined to reverse the same in favour of claimants. Firstly, no evidence in rebuttal was led by the Company and then for all practical purposes remained exparte in the sense that except to file written statement, they did nothing. On the other hand, the claimants led evidence and discharged their initial burden. Israel was neither owner of the offending Jeep, not insurer. He was, therefore, third party, as one of the person sitting in Jeep. Ajij was the driver.

There is nothing on record to hold that Jeep was responsible for causing accident and hence, claimants are not entitled to get any compensation. The driver of Truck was not examined. We cannot conclude on the strength of evidence that Jeep was responsible for the accident.

8. In this view of the matter, we set aside the finding of the Tribunal on this issue and modify the impugned award by passing the same also against the insurance company i.e. respondent No.3/non applicant No.3."

A bare perusal of the order clearly shows that no reason whatsoever has been a