The legislative intent of providing finality to awards below a certain amount prevails over the maintainability of revisions under S. 115 C. P. C.

( 1 ) THIS order shall also govern the disposal of Civil Revision No. 3037/99 (Orintal Insurance Co. Limited v. Smt. Rajmani ).

( 2 ) COMMON question has arisen in the present two revisions as to the maintainability of the revisions on account of specific ban created by S. 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Section 173 provides that no appeal shall lie against an award below the sum of Rs. 10,000/ -. In such event, when no appeal has been provided the question for decision is whether revision lies under S. 115 C. P. C.

( 3 ) BOTH the aforesaid revisions were taken up for hearing on 21-1-2000. Shri A. S. Jha and Shri H. S. Ruprah assisted the Court as amicus curiae and they also addressed the Court. In both the revisions, the insurer is the petitioner. In C. R. No. 1600/99 New India Assurance Company Limited is the petitioner whereas C. R. No. 3037 of 1999 has been filed by Orintal Insurance Companylimited

( 4 ) THE learned counsel appearing in both the cases have submitted that as the appeal is not provided under S. 173, sub-sec. (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 with respect to an award for the sum below Rs. 10,000/-, and as the tribunal is a civil Court, the award is revisable at the instance of insurance company within the purview of S. 115 of the C. P. C. Learned counsel have placed reliance on various decisions which shall be referred to hereinafter.

( 5 ) LEARNED amicus curiae Shri A. S. Jha and Shri H. S. Ruprah assisting the Court have submitted that revision is not provided against the final award in the Motor Vehicles Act. It is submitted that Tribunals are constituted under a special Act and once finality is given to the award for a sum below Rs. 10,000/- that cannot be allowed to be destroyed by resorting to surreptitious method of filing the revision. It is their submission that the Tribunal is a creation under the Act though it is having various powers of the Civil Court, but in strict terms it cannot be construed as a civil Court and hence revision would not lie against each and every order particularly the award finally made by such Tribunal. It has been further submitted that if the revision is held competent against final award, provision of revision can be invoked with respect to various other Tribunals similarly functioning under various Acts.

( 6 ) SECTION 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') reads thus :"173. Appeals.- (1) Subject to the provisions of sub-sec. (2), any person aggrieved by an award of a Claims Tribunal may, within ninety days from the date of the award, prefer an appeal to the High Court :provided that no appeal by the person who is required to pay any amount in terms of such award shall be entertained by the High Court unless he has deposited with it twenty-five thousand rupees or fifty per cent of the amount so awarded, whichever is less, in the manner directed by the High Court :provided further that the High Court may entertain the appeal after the expiry of the said period of ninety days, if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from preferring the appeal in time. (2) No appeal shall lie against any award of a Claims Tribunal if the amount in dispute in the appeal is less than ten thousand rupees. "another provision relevant i. e. S. 169 of the Act reads as under :"169. Procedure and powers of Claims Tribunal.- (1) In holding an inquiry under S. 168, the Claims Tribunal may, subject to any rules that may be made in this behalf, follow such summary procedure as it thinks fit. (2) The Claims Tribunal shall have all the powers of a Civil Court for purpose of taking evidence on oath and of enforcing the attendance of witnesses and of compelling the discovery and production of documents and material objects and for such other purposes as may be prescribed; and the Claims Tribunal shall be deemed to be a Civil Court for all the purposes of S. 195 and Chapter XXVI of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2