The main legal point established in the judgment is that the complainant was entitled to compensation on a non-standard basis due to overloading of the vehicle, as per Rule 93 (4) (viii) of The Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.

ORDER

R.S. Sharma, President—This appeal is directed against the order dated 28.09.2016, passed by District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Rajnandgaon (C.G.) (henceforth called "District Forum") in Complaint Case No.26/2016. By the impugned order, the District Forum, has allowed the complaint of respondent (complainant) and directed that :-

01. The O.P. will pay Rs. 17,00,000/- (Rupees Seventeen Lakhs) towards compensation to the complainant within a period of one month from the date of order along with interest @ 6% p.a. from the date of filing of the complaint i.e. 15.02.2016 till date of payment.

02. The O.P. will pay Rs. 10,000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand) towards compensation for mental agony and Rs. 2,000/- (Rupee Two Thousand) towards cost of litigation to the complainant within period of one month.

2. Briefly stated, the facts of the complaint of the complainant are that the complainant is doing business of transporting and under the above business he is loading goods through the transporting agent and was carrying and bringing the goods to one place to another place or one city to another city or one State to another State. As per instructions of Baljinder Road Carrier, Baldev Bagh, Rajnandgaon (Transporting Agent) on 30.03.2014, the complainant handed over his truck bearing registration No.C.G.08-L-1629 to driver Lomesh Mandavi to go to District Korba where Prabhdas Kishordas Tobacco Product Private Limited will load 417 bags of Tendu leaves and the same was to be delivered at to branch of Prabhudas Kishordas Tobacco Products Pvt. Ltd. at Uppinangadi, Mangalore (Karnataka State). On 30.03.2014 itself 417 bags of Tendu leaves were loaded in truck bearing registration No.C.G.0-8-L-1629 and driver Lomesh Mandavi was going to Uppinangadi, Mangalore (Karnataka State). On 01.04.2014 when the driver Lomesh Mandavi reached to Village Karanja, Bhilai, Police Out Post Jevra Sirsa, District Durg, at 11.00 A.M. the tendu leaves bags came into contact of electric wire, which was loose and hanging below and due to current spread in the wire, the tendu leaves bag caught fire. The Fire Brigade Department of the Steel Authority of India Ltd., Bhilai Steel Plant has been intimated regarding the same. Thereafter the fire brigade team tried their best to extinguish the fire, but the fire could not be control and the tendu leaves along with truck was fully burnt. The matter was reported to Police Out Post Jevra Sirsa, where report was lodged. The copy of the said report was sent to Sub Divisional Magistrate, Durg for necessary action. The vehicle bearing registration No.C.G.08-L-1629 was insured with the O.P.under Insurance Policy No.192502/31/2014/17831 for the period from 29.01.2014 to 28.01.2015. Thus, on the date of incident i.e. 01.04.2014, the vehicle bearing registration No.C.G.-08-L-1629 was insured with the O.P. Insurance Company. The complainant had immediately gave intimation regarding the incident to the O.P. (Insurance Company) and submitted claim form along with relevant documents of the above truck to the O.P. requesting to pay the claim amount Rs. 20,00,000/-. The O.P. vide letter dated 31.07.2014 repudiated the Motor Claim, on the ground that there was violation of terms and conditions of the insurance policy as at the time of incident, the height of the tendu leaves bags loaded in the vehicle was more than 4.75, as clarified in Rule 93 (4) (viii) of The Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. On the date of incident i.e. 01.04.2014, the fitness certificate, national permit was valid and the complainant also paid the road tax of the vehicle to Additional R.T.O. Rajnandgaon for the period from February, 2014 to April, 2014 even then the O.P. repudiated the claim of the complainant and thus committed deficiency in service. Hence, the complainant has filed instant complaint before the District Forum and prayed for granting reliefs as mentioned in the complaint.

3. The O.P. filed its written statement and raised preliminary object