The amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act in 1956, which introduced Sections 110, 110-A to 110-F, did not have retrospective effect and did not affect the right to file a suit in respect of a cause of action that had accrued before the constitution of the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal.

( 1 ) THIS order governs the disposal of three other miscellaneous appeals Nos. 59, 60 and 86 all of 1961, also. All these appeals are filed by the applicants in petitions which were tiled before the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Jabalpur, for recovery of compensation, in respect of personal injuries caused to them in motor accidents. A preliminary objection regarding the maintainability or the applications was raised and the Court upheld the objection and returned the plaint in each case for presentation to the Civil Court. It is against these orders that the tour appeals are directed.

( 2 ) THE dates on which the accidents occurred and the claims were filed are given below: case No. Date of Date of filing accident claim m. A. No. 59/611 13-9-1959 12-11-1959 and m. A. No. 60/61 m. A. 58/61 12-6-1959 29-9-1959 m. A. 86/61 24-1-1959 28-9-1959

( 3 ) SECTIONS 110, 110-A to 110-F were introduced in the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, by the Motor vehicles (Amendment) Act, 1956 (100 of 1956) providing for the constitution of one or more Motor Accidents Claims Tribunals for the purpose of adjudicating upon claims for compensation in respect of accidents involving death or badly injury. On 18-9-1959 a Notification was published in the Madhya Pradesh gazette bearing the date 7-8-1959 under which a Tribunal was constituted at jabalpur for several districts including the places where the accidents in the four cases before us occurred. It will be noticed from the dates of accidents and the dates of filing the claims before the Tribunal as given in the preceding paragraph that in the first two cases the accident had occurred after the date of the notification but before its publication and in the other two cases the accidents occurred before the constitution of the Tribunal.

( 4 ) THE only question which arises in these appeals is whether the petitions lay before the Tribunal, it would be convenient to give the material provisions introduced by the Amendment of 1956. They are as below: 110. (1) A State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, constitute one or more Motor Accidents Claims Tribunals (hereinafter referred to as Claims Tribunals) for such area as may be specified in the notification. for the purpose of adjudicating upon claims for compensation in respect of accidents involving the death of, or bodily injury to, persons arising out of the use of motor vehicles. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 110-A (1 ). . . . . . . . . . (2 ). . . . . . . . . . (3) No application for compensation under this section shall be entertained unless it is made within sixty days of the occurrence of the accident; provided that the Claims Tribunal may entertain the application after the expiry of the said period of sixty days if it is satisfied that the applicant was prevented by sufficient cause from making the application in time. * * * * * * 110f. Where any Claims Tribunal has been constituted for any area, no civil Court shall nave jurisdiction to entertain any question relating to any claim for compensation, which may be adjudicated upon by the claims Tribunal for that area, and no injunction in respect of any action taken or to be taken by or before the Claims Tribunal in respect of the claim for compensation shall be granted by the Civil Court. "

( 5 ) SHRI R. S. Dabir for the appellant contends that the Tribunal has jurisdiction to entertain an application irrespective of the fact whether the accident occurred before or after its constitution. In any case, he contends that the Tribunal has jurisdiction to entertain applications in respect of prior accidents even though the civil Court may also have jurisdiction to try a suit for damages or compensation in respect of such accidents. Shri K. L Gupta for the respondents, on the other hand, contends that the jurisdiction of the Tribunal does not extend to such cases, as the amendment made in 1956 has no application to accidents which occurred before the constitution of the T