JUDGMENT :

Ravi Nath Tilhari, J.

1. Heard Ms. Pooja Arora, holding brief of Sri Prabhakar Tiwari, learned counsel for the appellant.

2. Instant appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 has been filed against the judgment and award dated 24.03.2021 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (South), Lucknow (in short ‘the Tribunal’) in Motor Accident Claims No. 134/2018 (Ram Sumer Singh and Ors. vs. Assistant General Manager, Uttrakhand, State Road Transport Corporation, Kotdwar, Garhwal, Uttrakhand and Anr.).

3. By award dated 24.03.2021, the Tribunal has awarded compensation of Rs. 9,26,800/- along with interest @ 7 per cent from the date of filing claim petition till the date of payment to the claimant/respondent nos. 1 to 3.

4. The facts of the case are that the claimant-respondents filed claim petition no. 134/18 before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Lucknow claiming compensation of Rs. 1,00,20,000/- on account of death of late Sujit Singh, in the accident dated 10.11.2016, near Shyampur on Najeebabad-Haridwar National Highway no. 74 caused due to rash and negligent driving of Driver of the Bus bearing Registration No. UK 07 PA 3177 of the Uttrakhand State Road Transport Corporation, Kotdwar, Garhwal, Uttrakhand (in short ‘the Corporation’).

5. The appellant/opposite party no. 1 in the claim petition, denied the claim of the claimant-respondent and pleaded inter alia that the accident was caused due to contributory negligence of the driver of the Maruti Car No. UP 32 FM 1777.

6. The respondent no. 4/opposite party no. 2 in the claim petition, the driver of the Bus also filed reply-written statement to the same effect as of the present appellant.

7. The Tribunal framed the following issues:-

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2- D;k mDr nq?kZVuk ;kph dh ;ksxnk;h mis{kk ds dkj.k ?kfVr gqbZ\

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4- D;k nq?kZVuk ls le; nq?kZVuk dkkfjr djus okyh cl la[;k ;wds&07ih,&3177 chek 'krksZ ds mYya?ku esa pyk;h tk jgh Fkh\

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8. In evidence the claimants examined Ram Sumer as P.W. 1 and Srikant Singh as P.W. 2 and filed documentary evidence. In the evidence on behalf of the appellants, any witness was not examined, which is clear from the judgment/award at page 2 thereof, which fact has also not been disputed.

9. The Tribunal vide judgment and award under challenge allowed the claim petition in favour of the claimant-respondents.

10. On issue no. 1, the Tribunal recorded the finding that the accident was caused due to rash and negligent driving of the Driver of the bus of the appellant; resulting into the death of Sujit Singh, on the date, time and place mentioned in the claim petition. On Issue nos. 3 & 4, it was recorded that the Bus of Corporation was exempted from the insurance policy and on the date of the accident, the Driver of the appellant’s Bus had effective and valid driving licence. On Issue no. 5, the Tribunal awarded an amount of Rs. 9,26,800/- with interest @ 7 per cent from the date of filing of the claim petition upto the date of payment.

11. On Issue no. 2, ‘if the accident was caused due to contributory negligence of the deceased’, the Tribunal, specifically recorded that the opposite parties in the claim petition (the appellant and respondent no. 4 herein) did not press Issue no. 2, which was decided accordingly.

12. Ms. Pooja Arora submitted that the Issue no. 2 was pressed before the Tribunal by the appellant but has not been decided and it has been in