ORDER

Heard on admission.

Admit.

With the consent of learned counsel for the parties, heard final arguments.

This Miscellaneous Appeal under Section 173(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 has been filed by the appellant/Insurance Company being aggrieved with the award dated 03/02/2022 passed by learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Narsinghpur (M.P.) in Motor Accident Claim Case No.29/2020, whereby, the learned Tribunal has awarded a sum of Rs.34,65,344/- (Thirty four lakhs sixty five thousand three hundred forty four) with interest @ 6% from the date of filing of petition till the date of payment.

2. Brief facts of the case are that on 05/02/2020 deceased Jitendra Sen was going to Narsinghpur on a motorcycle and when he reached at Khamtara, Narsinghpur (NH-26), respondent No.5/non-applicant No.1 who was driving Maruti Car bearing registration No.MP-23-L-6969 rashly and negligently dashed the motorcycle of deceased, due to which he sustained head injury. Thereafter, deceased was brought to Government Hospital, Narsinghpur, where he died during treatment.

Thereafter, respondent Nos.1 to 4 / claimants filed a claim petition before the learned Tribunal, Narsinghpur averring that the claimant No.1/respondent No.1 is the wife of deceased, claimant No.2/respondent No.2 is daughter of deceased and claimant Nos. 3 & 4/respondent Nos. 3 & 4 are parents of the deceased. At the time of incident deceased, who was aged about 32 years, was a healthy person and was posted as Group Credit Officer at Fullerton India Credit Company Ltd., from where he earned Rs.18,500/- (Eighteen thousand five hundred) per month and claimants were dependent on the income of the deceased and now the claimants have been deprived of that income. Thus, by way of filing claim petition claimants, claimed a sum of Rs.96,00,000/- (Ninety six lakhs) as compensation on account of death of Jitendra Sen, who died in motor vehicle accident.

3. Respondent No.5 & 6/non-applicant Nos.1 & 2 (owner and driver of the offending vehicle) by filing written statement denied the averments mentioned in the claim petition. However, it was alleged that on the date of incident the offending vehicle was insured with appellant, therefore, if any amount of compensation is found to be awarded, then it is the appellant/insurance company who will be liable to pay the compensation.

4. Appellant/insurance company in its written statement denied the averments mentioned in the claim petition and pleaded that the alleged incident occurred due to negligence on the part of deceased himself. It was also alleged that at the time of incident the offending vehicle was being driven in violation of the terms and conditions of the policy. At the time of incident, the respondent No.5 was not having valid driving license to drive the offending vehicle, hence, appellant/insurance company has no liability to pay any compensation and prays for dismissal of the petition against the insurance company.

5. Learned Claims Tribunal framed the issues and recorded the evidence and after considering the evidence placed on the record and considering the argument advanced by the learned counsel for the parties, awarded compensation amount to the tune of Rs.33,65,344/- (Thirty three lakhs sixty five thousand three hundred forty four) holding the appellant and respondent Nos.5 & 6 liable to pay the compensation jointly and severally. Being aggrieved by the impugned award, appellant/Insurance Company has preferred the present miscellaneous appeal.

6. Learned counsel for the appellant submits that the learned Tribunal awarded a sum of Rs.33,65,344/- (Thirty three lakhs sixty five thousand three hundred forty four), breakup of which is as under :-

Rs.33,55,344/- Towards loss of dependency Rs.15,000/- Towards loss of estate Rs.40,000/- Towards loss of consortium to wife Rs.40,000/- Towards loss of filial consortium Rs.15,000/- Towards funeral