The mother of a deceased minor who died as a result of a motor vehicle accident involving his father's tractor is entitled to claim compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, even though the father of the deceased is the owner of the offending vehicle and is primarily liable for the accident.

R.K. Verma, J.

1. This is an appeal filed by the appellant-insurance company against the interim award dated March 15, 1991, made by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Jhabuain Claim Case No. 85 of 1990 whereby an interim compensation of Rs. 25,000 has been awarded under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, on the principle of "no" fault liability" to the claimant Jhamkubai, mother of the deceased minor, Ravindra Kumar, who died as a result of a motor accident in which the offending tractor, which stood insured for third party risk with the appellant-insurance company is involved.

2. The interim award under appeal has been challenged by the appellant-insurance company on two grounds. The first ground of challenge is that since the motor accident in question resulting in the death of the deceased took place on March 15, 1989, when the new Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, had not come into force and the provisions of the old Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (Hereinafter referred to as "the Act"), were applicable to the claim in question, the learned Tribunal committed a legal error in awarding Rs. 25,000 as interim compensation under Section 140 of the new Act. The interim compensation should have been awarded properly under Section 92A of the Act which was applicable to the instant claim relating to the accident which occurred on March 15, 1989. As such, the submission of learned counsel for the appellant-insurance company is that the learned Tribunal should have awarded Rs. 15,000 on the principle of no fault liability under Section 92A of the Act and not Rs. 25,000 as provided under Section 140 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which was not operative on the date of the accident.

3. The above submission of learned counsel is valid and must be accepted. Section 140 of the Act of 1988 which came into force on July 1, 1989, cannot be made retrospectively applicable to the instant case of accident which took place on March 15, 1989. The claimant should be allowed interim compensation of Rs. 15,000 only as provided in Section 92A of the Act. Accordingly, the amount of interim award deserves to be modified inasmuch as the claimant should be held entitled to interim compensation of Rs. 15,000 only, instead of Rs. 25,000 as awarded by the learned Tribunal.

4. The second ground of challenge made on behalf of the appellant-insurance company is that, since, in the instant case, the deceased minor, Ravindra Kumar, was crushed under the wheels of the tractor belonging to his father, Mohansingh, respondent No. 1, the claimant, Jamkubai, w/o. Mohansingh and mother of the deceased minor, Ravindrakumar, was not entitled to prefer the instant claim for compensation under the Act. In short, the contention is that the claim by the mother of the deceased, Ravindra Kumar, who died as a result of a motor accident in which his father's tractor was involved, is not maintainable and as such, no interim compensation could have been awarded to the mother of the deceased.

5. It has been submitted on behalf of the respondent-claimant on the basis of observations made in the case of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation v. Ramanbhai Prabhatbhai [1986] 62 Comp Cas 609 ; AIR 1987 SC 1690, that the expression "legal representative" has not been defined in the Act. However, a legal representative, ordinarily, means a person who in law represents the estate of a deceased person or a person on whom the estate devolves on the death of an individual. The proviso to Sub-section (1) of Section 110A of the Motor Vehicles Act provides that the application for compensation shall be made on behalf of or for the benefit of all the legal representatives of the deceased. Section 110B of the Act authorises the Claims Tribunal to make an award determining the amount of compensation which appears to it to be just and specifying the person or persons to whom compensation should be paid. The right given to the legal representatives under the Motor Vehicles Act to file an application for compe