The insurer, respondent No.2 before the Court below, prefers this appeal, assailing the judgment of the II Additional District Judge, Adilabad in OP.No.783 of 2003 dated 11.05.2006 offended by the order made to it, to pay the compensation and to recover the same from the insured.

2. The issue involved in this appeal lies in a very narrow campus, because, the learned counsel for the claimants/respondents does not dispute that the deceased was a gratuitous passenger and since the only ground that was stressed by the counsel for the appellant is with regard to the liability of the appellant in respect of a gratuitous passenger. Since, it is admitted that the deceased is a gratuitous passenger, the question that is left for further decision is whether the principle of pay and recover could be applied in this case. The facts need a brief narration in order to understand the nature of the travel of the claimant in the crime vehicle.

The crime vehicle is a jeep, which was hired by the friends of the claimant; he was travelling in the said vehicle when he was picked up by it on the way to its destination and the vehicle met with the accident, involving another lorry. But the claima