JUDGMENT :

SANDEEP SHARMA, J.

1. Instant appeal filed under S.173 of the Motor Vehicles Act (hereinafter ‘Act’) lays challenge to award dated 24.5.2016 passed by learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Shimla, District Shimla, Himachal Pradesh in MAC Petition No. 1-S/2 of 2015, whereby learned Tribunal below, while allowing claim petition having been filed by respondents Nos. 1 to 3/claimants, (hereinafter ‘claimants’) saddled the appellant-insurance company with the liability to pay compensation to the tune of Rs. 22,94,000/- alongwith interest at the rate of 9% per annum, to the claimants, from the date of filing of petition, till realization.

2. Precisely, the facts of the case, as emerge from the record, are that the claimants filed a claim petition under S.166 of the Act, seeking claim of Rs. 26,98,000 alongwith interest at the rate of 9% per annum on account of death of one Sanju, being his dependents/legal representatives, averring therein that the deceased was working as a Cleaner in vehicle bearing Registration No. HP-9C-2572, owned by respondent No. 4 and he was earning