The main legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation and application of Section 140 of the Motor Vehicles Act, emphasizing the principle of no fault liability and the liability of the Insurance Company to indemnify the insured owner of the offending vehicle.

1. In this Civil Ist Miscellaneous Appeal preferred under Section 173 of Motor Vehicles Act, the appellant has assailed the validity of the judgment/Award dated 14.02.2011 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Jammu in Claim No.553/Claim whereby the compensation to the tune of Rs.50,000/- (Rupees Fifty thousand only) was awarded in favour of respondent Nos.1 to 3.

2. The facts leading to filing of this appeal briefly stated are that respondent Nos.1 to 3 filed a claim petition under Section 166/140 of Motor Vehicles Act before the MACT, Jammu for grant of compensation on account of the death of Shri Sadar Din, who had died in a road traffic accident on 04.09.2009 near Sidhra while driving the commercial vehicle bearing registration No.JK02AD-8457. Since the deceased who himself was the registered owner of the said vehicle had died in the accident while driving the said vehicle, except for the appellant company, no other persons was arrayed as respondent in the claim petition. The appellant company after its service filed objections to the claim petition by taking various defences available to it. One of the specific defence raised by the appellant company in its objections was that the deceased himself being the registered owner and insured of the vehicle involved in the accident, did not fall in the definition of third party and therefore, the claim petition filed by respondent Nos.1 to 3 was not maintainable under the Motor Vehicles Act and deserves to be dismissed. It is further stated that the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Jammu vide its order dated 14.02.2011 accepted the plea of the appellant company and dismissed the claim petition under Section 166 of the M.V.Act. However, while dismissing the petition under Section 166 of M.V. Act, the Tribunal granted compensation of Rs.50,000/- to the respondents no.1 to 3 under Section 140 of the Motor Vehicles Act and directed the company to satisfy the same within 30 days from the date of receipt of the copy of the order, failing which, interest @ 7.5% per annual shall be charged. The appellant company being aggrieved of the order impugned challenges its legality, validity and correctness on the following amongst other grounds:-

(a) That the order impugned is ex facie bad, contrary to the facts of the case and law on the point and the same therefore, deserves to be set aside.

(b) That Chapter XI of the Motor Vehicles Act provides for the insurance of Motor Vehicles against third party risk. Section 147 of the Act provides for the requirements of the policies and limits of the liability. Under Sections 147 &148 of the M.V.Act, the Insurance Company is liable to indemnify the insured owner in respect of death or bodily injury caused to a third party by the use of the vehicle. In the present case, the deceased being the insured owner of the offending vehicle, did not fall in the definition of the third party and therefore, the claim petition was required to be rejected at the threshold. The Tribunal agreed with the contention of the appellant company that the deceased being the insured owner did not fall in the definition of third party and therefore, dismissed the claim petition under Section 166 of the M.V.Act. Once the tribunal held that the deceased was not a third party and the petition under Section 166 of the M.V.Act was not maintainable, no award under Section 140 of M.V.Act could have been passed against the appellant company. The Tribunal, therefore, by passing the interim award of Rs.50,000/- in favour of the claimants and against the appellant company has erred in law and the award impugned therefore deserves to be set aside.

(c) That the finding of the tribunal below while allowing the award under Section 140 of M.V.Act vide the order impugned that legislature in its wisdom did envisage granting of compensation in such cases by having enacted Section 140 of the M.V.Act irrespective of whether deceased died because of his own negligence or that he was th