1. The 1st respondent is the widow of one V.K. Sreedharan Nambiar who died on 23-10-1981 in the Calicut Medical College Hospital as a result of burns sustained while travelling in a bus KLN 723 belonging to the appellant on 12-10-1981. He was a passenger in the bus on its 1.40 p.m. trip from Cannanore to Vellachal. When the bus reached near a place called Macheri Srambi, a petrol can kept in a gunny bag under the back seat of the bus caught fire from a beedi thrown by a passenger in the bus. The deceased who was sitting in the back seat of the bus, was engulfed in the fire and was severely burnt. He was taken to the Headquarters Hospital at Cannanore and then on to the Medical College, at Calicut for treatment, where he succumbed to the injuries on 23-10-1981. The claim was therefore filed before the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Tellicherry, under S.110A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (the Act is brief), by the wife of the deceased for compensation in the sum of Rs. 1,25,000/- on the allegation that the deceased was a pharmacist-cum-homeo doctor earning not less than Rs. 1,000/- per month.

2. The appellant, bus-owner, claimed that the fire was caused on account of t