( 1 ) APPEAL has been preferred by the owners of tractor trolley involved in a motor accident against whom the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal has made an interim award u/s. 92-A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) for payment of Rs. 15,000/- to the claimants/respondents No. 1 to 7 (the legal representatives of the deceased in the incident), but exonerating the insurance company, the respondent No. 8 from payment on the ground that the deceased was travelling in the tractor at the time of the accident and being not a third party, the insurance company was not liable to compensate for the loss of the life.

( 2 ) IT is not disputed that the deceased was travelling in the tractor at the time of the accident and that the tractor was insured with the insurance company, the respondent No. 8. The learned counsel for the appellant and the respondent No. 8 have cited a host of case law on the point as to whether an insurance company would be liable to pay compensation for loss occasioned by the death of a traveller in a goods vehicle. The learned counsel for the appellant relies on 1988 (3) SCC 1, Pushpabai Parshottam Udeshi v. Ranjit Ginning