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2018 Supreme(Guj) 1214

IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
S.G. SHAH, J.
Sunil Shivran - Appellant
Versus
Nirmalsing Triloksing and Ors - Respondent
Special Civil Application No. 2463 of 2018
Decided On : 28-08-2018

Advocates:
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant : Sandeep N. Bhatt and Sonal S. Bhatt
For the Respondent: Dakshesh Mehta

Headnote:

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 – Section 166 – Injuries in accident – Tribunal has failed to award just and reasonable compensation on evidence available on record and impugned order has resulted into material illegality and injustice to claimant-petitioner – Such orders are required to be quashed and set aside – Tribunal shall offer reasonable opportunity to both parties to adduce their evidence in favour of their original claim, and thereafter, Tribunal shall decide just and reasonable compensation that may be awarded to claimant because considering nature of accident, probably there is no issue regarding liability of Insurance Company – Impugned order set aside – Petition allowed. (Paras 9, 10 and 11)

JUDGMENT :

S.G. SHAH, J.

1. Heard learned Advocate Mr. Bhatt for the petitioner as well as Mr. Mehta, learned Advocate for the respondent No. 3. Perused the record.

2. The petitioner herein is original claimant before Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Gandhidham-Kutch in Motor Accident Claims Petition No. 332 of 2008 wherein he has claimed Rs. 2,00,000/- as compensation for the injuries received by him in vehicular accident on 11-6-2008. Such claim petition has been dismissed for want of prosecution and in absence of applicant, by order dated 6-10-2017, below application for compensation being Exh. 1 in such Motor Accident Claims Petition No. 332 of 2008, by summary order Tribunal has recorded that since application is of the year 2008, and since it is pending for more than 5 years, and since issues were framed before for long time, it is not in the interest of justice to keep such petition pending as if claimant is not interested in proceeding further, and therefore, in absence of claimant and his Advocate, petition was dismissed for default for want of evidence by the claimant.

3. It is unfortunate that Tribunal has failed to realize the statutory provision which permits the Tribunal to call for the relevant information in form of Form No. 56 from the concerned investigating agency which is in fact statutory duty of such investigating agency to forward such information to the Tribunal and then Tribunal is empowered to award just and reasonable compensation based upon the available evidence on record. The Tribunal has also failed to realize that now law permits to record the evidence of the claimant in the form of affidavit, and thereby, when main application is supported by affidavit, and when there is specific averment in such application regarding nature of incident and its result; so also details of claim by the petitioner and more particularly, when petitioner has though calculated the quantum of compensation as Rs. 3,10,200/-, but fairly submitted that he would be satisfied if Rs. 2,00,000/- is awarded in his favour, there is no reason for the Tribunal to dismiss such petition summarily. It is also disturbing to see that the order dated 6-10-2017 which is a stereotype pre-drafted order wherein relevant information like number of claim petition, date of framing issue, exhibit of issues and date of order is handwritten with number of claim petition. Thereby, it is clear that the Tribunal is keen to dispose of several petitions only because they are pending for 5 years for the reasons best known to the Tribunal.

4. In any case, any instruction for early disposal of any kind of litigation should not result into injustice in any manner to any litigant at any cost. By all means, Courts are meant to do justice between the parties and the issue of disposal, more particularly, early and speedy disposal would never come in way of doing justice to the litigants. It is also evident from such order that issues were framed only on 23-6-2017 in a petition which is filed in the year 2008 whereas petition was dismissed on 6-10-2017 i.e. just within 4 months from the date of framing of issues, which were not framed by the Tribunal for 9 years.

5. Further, unfortunate instance is in the form of impugned order dated 5-1-2018 when petitioner has preferred Misc. Civil Application No. 741 of 2017 to restore the main petition.

6. Unfortunately, the Tribunal has again blow the same tune for such summary order of one page that since the matter was pending for more than 5 years and since the petitioner was not present on the date fixed for evidence, and thereby, when main petition was dismissed for default for want of prosecution, it cannot be restored.

7. I have perused the affidavit-in-reply by the respondent/s. They have objected to allow such petition and contended that in such cases, at least claimant may not be entitled to interest from the date of disposal of their petition till its restoration.

8. However, I do not find any substance in the defence





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