IMPORTANT POINT
The main legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation and application of the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, particularly Section 149(2)(a) and Section 171, in determining the maintainability of the appeal and the reasonableness of the awarded compensation.

JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. Pfosekho Pfotte, learned counsel for the appellants and Mr. M. Wabang, learned counsel for respondent No. 1.

2. This is an appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 filed by the appellants against the impugned judgment and award dated 04.05.2020, passed by the learned Member, Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Dimapur, Nagaland in MAC Case No. 14/2016.

3. The brief fact of the case is that on 31.08.2015, an accident occurred at NH-39 when a vehicle bearing Registration No. AS 09B 7681 (Maruti Alto K10), knocked down the claimant/Respondent and his wife due to rash and negligent driving of the driver of the said offending car. As a result, the claimants sustained grievous injuries to their bodies including chest injury. The claimants were shifted to G.D. Hospital & Research Centre and thereafter underwent further prolonged medical treatment at Patna under the supervision of Orthopedic Doctor, but in vain, and they were rendered permanently disabled and now, the claimant cannot resume his occupation/work making him jobless, losing his bright future prospect and now spending his life in agony, misery and passing through other passage of life.

4. The respondent/claimant then had filed a MAC Case before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), Dimapur, Nagaland, being registered as MAC Case No. 14/2016. The said MAC Case was contested by the respondents/appellants. During the trial of the case, the claimant’s wife, Jesmin Begum was was examined as PW-1 and produced 22 (twenty-two) numbers of documents in evidence as Exhibits 1-22. After completion of the trial and upon hearing the parties, the learned Tribunal passed judgment on 04.05.2020, whereby the appellant/respondent has been directed to pay the following award:

And ordered that the claimant, Shri Nazirul Haque is entitled to get the awarded amount of Rs. 17,38,620/- (rupees seventeen lakhs thirty eight thousand six hundred and twenty) with interest @9% per annum from the date of filing the claim petition till the payment from the opposite party/New India Assurance Company Limited. The opposite party/insurer was further directed to pay the awarded amounts within one month from the date of the said order.

5. Being aggrieved by the quantum of amount passed in the above MAC Case No. 14/2016, the appellants has filed this instant appeal inter alia on the following grounds:

(i) That the claimant has not exhibited any cogent proof of income, therefore, the income as claimed by the claimant remains disproved. But the income of the claimant on exhibition of a document alone and without examining the author of the document had accepted the document and calculated the award rendering the award excessive and unreasonable.

(ii) That the claimant has not examined the Doctor, thus, depriving the appellant/opposite party from cross-examining the author of the exhibit (alleged Disability Certificate) to prove the authenticity of the exhibit so also to reveal the nature of injury sustained by the claimant within the provision of Section 142 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

(iii) That the order as regards the loss of future earning suffers from perversity, as it is against the learned Members own finding that the claimant has failed to substantiate the loss of income to permanent disability.

(iv) That the learned Member, MACT, Dimapur failed to assess the Functional Disability to assess the loss of future earning capability of the claimant but rather on the mere inference of the document i