JUDGMENT

Rekha Palli, J. (Oral)

1. The present appeal preferred under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 by the claimant seeks to assail the award dated 28.08.2018 passed by the learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal. Vide the impugned award, the learned Tribunal after holding that it did not have territorial jurisdiction to deal with the appellants' claim petition has returned the petition for being presented before a Court having the appropriate territorial jurisdiction.

2. Learned counsel for the appellants submits that once it was an admitted position that the insurer has been carrying out business within the territorial jurisdiction of the learned Tribunal, the claim petition could not have been rejected. In support of his plea, he places reliance on the decision of Apex Court in Malati Sardar v. National Insurance Company Limited and Ors., (2016) 3 SCC 43.

3. On the other hand, Mr. Pradeep Gaur, learned counsel for the respondent seeks to support the impugned award by contending that once the accident took place at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, and the appellants had failed to show that the deceased was residing within the territorial jurisdiction of the learned Tri