The importance of the charge sheet as a result of due investigation in determining the identity of the offending vehicle in a motor vehicle accident case.

1. The present appellant was the respondent No.2 – Insurance Company before the II Addl. Civil Judge (Sr.Dn.) and Addl. Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Hubballi (henceforth referred to as ‘The Tribunal’, for brevity). The present respondents 1 to 4 had preferred a claim petition under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act before the Tribunal. The present respondent No.5 was respondent No.1 before the Tribunal, who was arrayed in his capacity as the owner of the alleged offending vehicle.

2. The summary of the case of the claimants in the Tribunal was that, on 03.06.2004 at about 00.30 hours on P.B. Road near Nursery farm house at Jigalur Village, the deceased Rudrappa (husband of the respondent No.1 herein), was proceeding on his motorcycle bearing registration No.KA-25/U-2096. At that time, a Goods Tempo vehicle bearing registration No.CTW-5812 coming from Shiggaon side being driven by its driver in a rash and negligent manner, dashed to the motorcycle, in which accident the deceased Rudrappa sustained injuries and succumbed to it. Claiming that they were dependent on the income of the deceased, the claimants had claimed a compensation of Rs.10,00,000/- from the respondents therein arraying them as the owner and insurer of the alleged offending vehicle respectively. The Tribunal after recording the evidence led before it and hearing both sides, by the impugned judgment and award allowed the claim petition in part and awarded a compensation of Rs.5,03,060/- with interest thereupon at 6% p.a. payable by respondents 1 and 2 to the claimants before it. It is the said judgment and award, the insurer has challenged in this appeal.

3. The only contention taken up in the memorandum of appeal as well as the argument of the learned counsel for the appellant is that, the alleged offending vehicle Goods Tempo bearing registration No.CTW-5812 has been falsely implicated in the case. It is also the further argument of the learned counsel for the appellant that the said vehicle was involved falsely at a belated stage in the criminal case by the police and that there are no materials to show that the said vehicle was actually the alleged offending vehicle. It is also his further argument that the Motor Vehicle Inspector’s report at Ex.R2 mentions no external damages to the said offending vehicle, which corroborates the defence taken by the Insurance Company as well the evidence of RW1 to the effect that the said vehicle was falsely implicated.

4. The learned counsel for the claimants in his argument submitted that, when the vehicle has dashed to the motorcycle making both the rider and the pillion rider to fall on earth and fled away from the scene, for a rustic villager, it is very difficult to make a distinction between the lorry and goods tempo, as such, he has identified the said vehicle as a lorry. It is his further argument that the pillion rider, who was an eyewitness to the incident, was examined as RW2, who in his evidence has clearly given the identity of the vehicle along with its registration number, as such the contention of the appellant that the goods tempo has been falsely implicated cannot be sustained.

5. The appellant – Insurance Company has not denied or disputed the date, time, place and the manner of occurrence of the accident. However, it’s only contention is about the identity of the alleged offending vehicle. In that regard, the learned counsel for the appellant drew the attention of this Court to Exs.P1, P2 and P4, which are the certified copies of the complaint, FIR and the supplementary statement recorded by the police in the criminal case pertaining to the accident in question. However, the very same complainant in his further statement at Ex.P4, after seeing the Goods Tempo shown to him, has identified the said Goods Tempo bearing registration No.CTW-5812 as the offending vehicle. But the said further statement is also based on the information said to have been given to the complainant, as such, his infor