The Claims Tribunal lacks inherent power to review awards on merits unless expressly provided by statute.

1. In a claim petition filed by respondent No. 1 - Amol Singh, an award was passed by the Claims Tribunal on 10.07.2017 in favour of claimant granting compensation of Rs.5,000/-, and fastened the liability to pay compensation upon the petitioner / Insurance Company.

2. The petitioner / Insurance Company preferred an application for review of the aforesaid award dated 10.07.2017 under O.47 R.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure (henceforth "CPC") on the ground that insured did not have valid permit to drive the offending vehicle on the date of incident.

3. Learned Claims Tribunal, by its impugned order dated 26.02.2018, rejected the review application finding that merit of the award cannot be looked into in the review jurisdiction, against which instant writ petition under Art.227 of the Constitution of India challenging the same.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that impugned order passed by the learned Claims Tribunal is bad and unsustainable in law as the offending vehicle did not have valid permit to ply the vehicle on the date of accident.

5. I have heard learned counsel appearing for the parties and perused the order impugned with utmost circumspection.

6. The short question that emanates for consideration in this petition is whether the Claims Tribunal constituted under the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1989 has power and jurisdiction to review its award on merits.

7. S.169 of the Motor Vehicles Act provides for the power and jurisdiction of the Claims Tribunal and procedure to be followed by it. S.169 of the Act reads as under: -

"169. Procedure and powers of Claims Tribunals.--

(1) In holding any 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 of 1974).

(3) Subject to any rules that may be made in this behalf, the Claims Tribunals may, for the purpose of adjudicating upon any claim for compensation, choose one or more persons possessing special knowledge of any matter relevant to the inquiry to assist it in holding the enquiry."

8. The Madhya Pradesh Motor Vehicles Rules, 1994 is also applicable in the State of Chhattisgarh. R.240 provides for procedure to be followed by the Claims Tribunal in holding enquiries and provides as under: -

"240. Procedure to be followed by Claims Tribunal in holding enquiries-- application of certain provisions of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908: Save as otherwise expressly provided in the Act or these rules, the following provisions of the First Schedule to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (V of 1908) namely, those contained in Order V, R.9 to 13, and 15 to 20, Order IX, Order XVIII, R.3 to 10, Order XVI, R.2 to 21, Order XVII, Order XXI and Order XXIII, R.1 to 3 shall apply to proceedings before a Claims Tribunal in so far as they may be applicable thereto."

9. A careful reading of the provisions contained in S.169 of the Motor Vehicles Act and R.240 of the Rules of 1994 would show that O.47 of the Code of Civil Procedure which provides for review has not been made applicable expressly to the Claims Tribunal. Sub-section (1) of S.169 provides that in holding enquiry under S.168, the Claims Tribunal may subject to any rules that may be made in this behalf f