Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
C&Cr vs The United India Insurance ... on 24 February, 2022
24.02.2022
Item No.38
Ct. No.7
AGM
F.M.A. 1197 of 2021
(Via Video Conference)
Archana Taladhi & Ors
C&CR
Vs.
The United India Insurance Company Ltd. & Anr
Mr. Amit Ranjan Roy, ... For the Appellants.
Mrs. Sucharita Paul, ... For the Respondents.
Learned advocate for the parties are ad idem on the
point that the instant appeal may be disposed of
giving a go by to the technicalities involved in the
process.
It is submitted by learned advocates for the
appellants/claimants that claimants have been
suffering financial distress for want of sufficiency of
money for their sustenance in this pandemic, and
urges the Court for disposing of the appeal on the
basis of materials furnished by both the parties to the
case, which is not opposed by the learned advocate
representing the Insurance Company/respondent
No.1.
When learned advocates for both the parties are
agreeable to the expeditious disposal of the instant
appeal, the Court should not stand in the way.
The appeal has emerged out against the judgment
and award dated 19th February, 2021, passed by
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learned Additional District Judge/Fast Track Court-II,
Tamluk, Purba Medinipur, in Motor Accident Claim
Case No. 102 of 2017/CIS Regn No. 582 of 2016, on a
claim case under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles
Act, 1988 granting award to the tune of Rs.
17,97,557/- to the legal heirs of the deceased,
Ananda Dulal Talidhi aged about 50 years, for a
vehicular accident, occurred on 9th December, 2016
by reason of involvement of vehicle bearing No WB-
31/2897 in consequence of rash and negligent
driving.
The solitary point raised in this appeal pertains to
erroneous grant of interest to the award ignoring the
position of the law, laid down in Section 171 of the
MV Act.
Mr. Amit Ranjan Roy, learned advocate representing
the appellants/claimants submits that the claimants
are entitled to interest from the date of filing of claim
case. However, the Tribunal has erroneously awarded
interest to the claimants, only from the date of
recording of evidence of PW1 thereby leading to
inadequate quantification of the award, which can
hardly be regarded to be just and proper.
Mrs. Paul, the learned advocate appearing on
behalf of the Insurance Company argues that there
lies nothing to be interfered with in this appeal, and
3
as such, there is no scope for making any interference
by this Court. She strongly opposes the case made
out by the appellant. According to Mrs. Paul, the
grant of interest as laid down in Section 171 of the
MV Act, is always discretionary and varies from case
to case, which should not be straight jacketed in the
manner, as proposed by Mr. Roy.
Facts
leading to the death of the victim in the
above accident are not at all disputed.
Having considered the submissions of both sides,
as well as the proposition of law, the Court is of the
view that there is strong force in the submissions
advanced by the learned advocate for the
appellant/claimant.
Accordingly, the claimants are found entitled to 6%
interest from the date of filing of the claim case and
not from the date of evidence, as erroneously given in
this case.
The claimants acknowledge the receipt of the entire
awarded amount of Rs. 17,97,557/- along with
interest as directed by the Tribunal. Insurance
Company would ensure calculation and pay interest
on the principal awarded amount of Rs. 17,97,557/-,
from the date of filing of claim application till the date
the recording of evidence of PW1 commenced, within
a period of 45 days from the date of receipt of the
bank account particulars of the appellants.
Learned advocate for the appellants will forward
the bank account details of the appellants within
three weeks from date to learned advocate for the
insurance company. The payment is to be made in
the proportion as already decided by the learned
Tribunal. The payment should be made directly to the
bank account of the claimants through NEFT/RTGS.
With the aforesaid directions, the instant appeal is
disposed of.
In view of the disposal of this appeal, connected
applications, if any, are also disposed of.
There shall be no further order as to costs.
Department is directed to send down the Lower
Court Records immediately, if received.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if
applied for, be given to the parties, upon compliance
of all formalities, on priority basis.
All parties shall act in terms of copy of this order
downloaded from the official website of this Court.
(Subhasis Dasgupta, J.)
