The High Court dismissed an appeal challenging a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal award which rejected a motor accident claim. The Court upheld the Tribunal's finding that there was no link evidence connecting the appellant to the accident despite a disability certificate.
The appeal is dismissed; the Award dated 1.12.1993 is not interfered with.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
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FAO No.408 of 1994 (O&M)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH
FAO No.408 of 1994 (O&M) ( in MACT case No.82 of 1992) Date of decision:16.1.2012
Ashok Kumar
....Appellant
Versus
Satbir Singh and others
...Respondents
CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE JITENDRA CHAUHAN
Present: Mr.UK Agnihotri, Advocate for the appellant
Mr.V.Chaudhri, Advocate for respondent No.3.
Jitendra Chauhan, J.(Oral)
The present appeal has been filed by the claimant/appellant, challenging the impugned Award dated 1.12.1993, passed by the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Rohtak (for short 'the Tribunal'), vide which the claim petition filed by him on account of the injuries received by him in an accident, was dismissed.
Learned counsel for the appellant contends that the appellant suffered injuries in an accident occurred on 18.7.1991 and his left index finger was amputated. The learned Tribunal has wrongly denied the disability certificate 'A' issued by the AIIMS, Delhi on 7.11.1991, wherein permanent disability shown was 24%, which would corroborate the oral testimonies of PW2 and PW3.
FAO No.408 of 1994 (O&M) 2
On the other hand, the learned counsel appearing for the respondent-Insurance Company argued that the learned Tribunal has rightly rejected the claim petition of Ashok Kumar-claimant because there was no link evidence to connect him to the accident.
I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused the
record.
In para No.16 of the impugned Award, the learned Tribunal has observed as under:-
“.. Allegedly, Ashok Kumar son of Ram Karan received injuries in the accident, but it might be noted that there was no link evidence that he suffered any injury in the accident. He was not produced into the witness box. No copy of the medical legal report was produced. In the FIR, copy Ex.PA, there was no mention that any child of the name of Ashok Kumar had received injuries. Name of one Ashok Kumar was written in the FIR, but he had died. According to the FIR, there were three children and all the three died. In respect of the death of two children of Ram Karan, two claim petitions have been filed whereas in respect of third child namely Gobind son of Randhir, it seems that no claim petition has been filed. The claimants produced a disability certificate of Ashok Kumar son of Ram Karan aged 8 years issued by All India Institute of Medical Sciences on 7.11.1991 Mark 'A', according to which, Ashok Kumar was a case of traumatic amputation left index finger and his permanent disability was 24%. From this
FAO No.408 of 1994 (O&M) 3
certificate, it was not linked whether he had sustained injury on the left index finger on the day of accident dated 18.7.1991.” Regarding the statements of Ram Karan PW2 and Krishan @ Shri Krishan uncle of Ashok appearing as PW3, Ashok Kumar was admitted to Din Dayal Upadhya Hospital, Delhi. But no medical record in this regard was produced. On the contrary, the disability certificate of Ashok Kumar was issued by the AIIMS, New Delhi. Apparently, the alleged injury has no nexus with the accident in question.
In view of the above discussion, this Court finds no ground to interfere in the well reasoned Award dated 1.12.1993, passed by the learned Tribunal. As such, the present appeal being bereft of any merit is dismissed.
16.1.2012 gsv
(JITENDRA CHAUHAN) JUDGE
2 issues framed by the court
Whether the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal erred in dismissing the petition due to lack of linking evidence between the injury and the accident.
Whether the absence of a medical legal report and FIR mention prevents appreciation of a later disability certificate.
Ashok Kumar
Satbir Singh
Jitendra Chauhan
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
