rekha jain

M.V. Act -accident claim = Whether the High Court is justified in reducing the compensation from Rs.10,62,000/- to Rs.8,00,000/- with 6% interest per annum?= The same has been interfered with by the High Court in the Appeal filed by the Insurance Company though it has no right to challenge the quantum of compensation as it has got limited defence as provided under Section 149(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act in the absence of permission from the Tribunal to avail the defence on behalf of the insurer as required under Section 170(b) of the Act. It is relevant to note that Parliament, while enacting sub-section (2) of Section 149 only specified some of the defences which are based on conditions of the policy and, therefore, any other breach of conditions of the policy by the insured which does not find place in sub-section (2) of Section 149 cannot be taken as a defence by the insurer. If we permit the insurer to take any other defence other than those specified in sub- section (2) of Section 149, it would mean we are adding more defences to the insurer in the statute which is neither found in the Act nor was intended to be included.= In our considered view the Tribunal and the High Court have erred in not following the principles laid down in Sarla Verma’ case (supra) in fixing the monthly income at Rs.12,000/- in the absence of documentary evidence having regard to the fact that the deceased was employed as Lecturer in Odisha College of Homeopathy and Research, Sambalpur and she also had private practice. The Tribunal in exercise of its original jurisdiction has taken Rs.12,000/- as her monthly income and has deducted 1/3rd out of the monthly salary towards her personal expenses and computed the compensation both on the loss of dependency as well as the conventional heads and has awarded Rs.10,62,000/-. The same should not have been interfered with by the High Court in exercise of its appellate jurisdiction. Hence, the impugned judgment, award and order passed in the Misc. Case no. 385/2011 in M.A.C.A No. 579/2007 is required to be interfered with. So also the order dated 10.3.2011 in Misc. Case No.385 of 2011 modifying the earlier direction issued by the High Court to deposit 60% of the awarded amount in any of the Nationalized Bank, is required to be interfered with. Accordingly, both the impugned judgment, award and orders dated 24.2.2011 and 10.03.2011 are hereby set aside by allowing the civil appeals. Having regard to the facts, circumstances and the finding recorded by the Tribunal in its judgment, we restore the same in awarding compensation in favour of the appellants at Rs.10,62,000/- with interest at the rate of 6% per annum.

published in http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgst.aspx?filename=40622 REPORTABLE IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CIVIL APPEAL NOS.5373-5375 OF 2013 (Arising out of SLP (C) Nos. 7407-7409 of 2012) REKHA JAIN & ANR. … APPELLANTS VS. NATIONAL INSURANCE CO.LTD. … RESPONDENT         J U D G M E N T   V. Gopala Gowda, J. … Continue reading →