1. Heard Ms. S. Roy, learned counsel for the appellant and Mr. B.J. Mukherjee, and Mr. R. Goswami, the learned counsels appearing for the respondents No. 2 to 5 and respondent No. 7 respectively.

2. This appeal is filed by National Insurance Co. Ltd., who was the insurer of truck bearing Reg. No. AS-25-A-5352. The appeal has been filed under section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as the “said Act” for brevity) is directed against the judgment and award dated 10.07.2009 passed by the learned Member, Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Nagaon (hereinafter referred to as the “learned Tribunal” for brevity), awarding a sum of Rs.12,20,000/- in favour of the claimants.

3. At the very outset is must be mentioned that there were five claimants before the learned Tribunal. The claimant No.1 was the wife of Late Mahendra Saikia, the deceased, and the other 4 (four) claimants were the minor daughters and sons of the said deceased and claimant No.1. At the time of filing the claim petition, Ms. Anindita Saikia (daughter), the claimant No.2 was aged about 15 years – 6 months, Ms. Niminita Saikia (daughter) was aged about 9 years – 6 months, Ms. Jashashree Sikha Saikia (daughter) was aged about 6 years, and Master Kingshuk Saikia (son) was aged about 2 years – 6 months. Going by the age of the claimants No. 2 to 5 as mentioned above, all of them have attained the age of majority by now. The claimant No.1, namely, Smt. Utpala Saikia, the wife of the deceased had also expired during the pendency of the claim case, and Ms. Utpala Saikia, the eldest daughter of the deceased had in the meanwhile attained majority and filed petition No. 1255/07 to allow her to conduct the claim petition for herself and her other minor sisters and brother, which was allowed and the name of the claimant No.1 was deleted. However, in this appeal, the claimant No.1, whose name was struck off, was arrayed as respondent No.1. Therefore, by order dated 01.02.2010, passed by this court in M.C. No. 3560/2009, the name of respondent No.1 was struck off from the list of respondents and the cause title was amended accordingly. However, it appears that in the cause title of this appeal, the seriatim of the Opp. Parties in the claim petition were not altered and rest of the respondents continue to be numbered as Respondents No. 2 to 8 as before. Out of the rest of the Opp. Parties, while the Opp. Parties No.2 to 5 were the claimants, the Opp. Party No.6 is the owner of the vehicle involved in the accident. The Opp. Party No.7 i.e. National Insurance Co. Ltd., was the insurer of vehicle No. AS-25-A-5352 and the Opp. Party No. 8 was United India Insurance Co. Ltd., the insurer of vehicle No. AS-02-A- 4225. As stated herein before, the present appeal has been preferred by the Opp. Party No.7 before the learned Tribunal.

4. The case of the claimants before the learned Tribunal was that on the fateful day of 08.08.2001 at about 12.45 a.m., while the predecessor-in- interest of the claimants were coming to Nagaon from Guwahati by driving his own vehicle (Maruti Car bearing Reg. No. AS-02-A-4225) with one Mohan Joshi, met with an accident at Village- Namgaon near Raha. The car was badly damaged and the deceased sustained severe injuries. He was brought to Nagaon for treatment, and was immediately shifted to Guwahati for better treatment. The deceased succumbed to his injuries on 11.08.2001. At the time of his death, the deceased was aged about 42 years and working as an Assistant Manager in State Bank of India. He had left behind his widow, 4 minor children, ailing mother and two unmarried sisters, who were all dependent on him.

5. The claimants filed a claim petition before the learned Tribunal at Nagaon, claiming a compensation of Rs.25.00 lakh. The cause of accident was attributed on the driver of truck bearing Reg. no. AS-25-A-5352, which was stated to be parked in the middle of the road without any parking lights on.

6. The respondent No.6