V.K. Mehrotra, J.—These are appeals under section 110-D of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (hereinafter, the Act) and are directed against a common Award dated December 29, 1982, of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Simla. Various claim petitions, resulting in the Award under challenge, arose out of the same accident. They were tried together, after consolidation, and by consent of parties evidence was recorded in the claim petition of claimant Nand Kishore (Claim Petition No. 17-S/2 of 1980). The accident took place on June 14, 1980, at about 5.00 p.m. when bus No. HPS 1667 belonging to the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (Local Unit, Simla) went down the Circular Road just below Hotel Holiday Home. As a result, a number of persons travelling in the bus received . injuries and some of them succumbed to the injuries sustained by them. Baldev Singh, the third respondent, was driving the bus.

2. In the claim petitions it was said that the bus was being driven by the driver rashly and negligently and while it crossed the Forest Office of the Municipal Corporation, Simla, near the lift and was descending just below the Holiday Home Hotel, Simla, it first struck against a stat