Judgment :-

S.B. Sinha, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. Appellant is before us aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the judgment and order dated 31st July, 2006 whereby and whereunder an appeal preferred by it was dismissed in limine by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh stating :

" For the reasons in paras 43 & 44 of the award of the Tribunal, we find no ground to interfere in this matter.

Dismissed."

3. Ordinarily we would have remitted the matter back to the High Court as the appeal of the appellant under Section 173(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 (for short `the Act) has not been considered on merit, but, keeping in view the fact that the respondent Nos. 1 to 6 being mother, brothers and sisters of the deceased having been awarded a total amount of compensation of Rupees one lac forty thousand only, we chose to hear the parties on merit.

4. The accident took place on 15th May, 2002 when deceased Sunil Kumar alongwith other injured persons, were travelling as members of a marriage party in a Tata 407 vehicle bearing registration No. HR-39-9869. Indisputably it was a goods vehicle. The first information report was lodged in relation thereto wherein the driver of the vehicl