[Cites 10, Cited by 0]
Madhya Pradesh High Court
S.B.I. General Insurance Co. Ltd. vs Chama on 26 February, 2026
NEUTRAL CITATION NO. 2026:MPHC-JBP:17016
1 CR-380-2025
IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH
AT JABALPUR
BEFORE
HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE VIVEK JAIN
ON THE 26th OF FEBRUARY, 2026
CIVIL REVISION No. 380 of 2025
S.B.I. GENERAL INSURANCE CO. LTD.
Versus
CHAMA AND OTHERS
Appearance:
Shri Abhay Kesharwani - Advocate for the Petitioner.
ORDER
The present revision has been filed by the Insurance Company
challenging the award passed by the Claims Tribunal, whereby the Tribunal
has awarded compensation of Rs.15,000/- to the claimant-respondent.
2. The present revision under Section 115 of CPC has been filed
against the award of Claims Tribunal on the sole ground that after
amendment in the Motor Vehicles Act vide Amendment Act of 2019,
Section 149 has been renumbered as Section 150 and the provision
corresponding to Section 149(4) does not find place in the amended
provision and, therefore, the Claims Tribunal, despite having found the
vehicle to be run in breach of policy conditions, has erroneously passed an
award against the Insurance Company and granted the liberty of pay and
recover.
3. It is contended in this revision that pay and recover after the
Amendment Act of 2019 cannot be ordered by the Claims Tribunal and the
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liability should have been imposed on the owner of the offending vehicle and
direction of pay and recover could not have been passed by the Tribunal.
4. When this Court confronted the petitioner with the query that the
award in this case is of a very low quantum and the litigation expenses of this
case alone may be almost equal to the awarded amount for the petitioner
itself apart from the litigation cost to be borne by the respondents in case this
revision is entertained, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that since the
issue raised is in larger interest and of larger importance, therefore,
irrespective of quantum of compensation in this particular case, the
Insurance Company has decided to challenge it.
5. The legislature has given the remedy of appeal under Section 173 of
the Motor Vehicles Act against awards of Claims Tribunal and as per
Section 173(2), appeal against an award of Tribunal is barred if the amount
in dispute is less than Rs.10,000/- which has been enhanced to Rs.1.00 Lakh
by the Amendment Act.
6. The question that whether once the legislature has refused to allow
appeal for awards below Rs.1.00 Lakh, the Insurance Company or any other
person can file revision against the award, was considered by a Special
Bench of five-Judges of High Court in the case of National Insurance
Company v. Shrikant Vinod Tiwari and others , 2007 (2) J.L.J. 138. At that
relevant point of time, the threshold limit was Rs.10,000/- and the Special
Bench came to conclusion that a party cannot be left remediless and since
revision is not barred under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, therefore, the
revision would lie under Section 115 CPC, though on limited grounds. The
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Special Bench held as under:-
"18. We may further reiterate that for examining the
correctness of the award, scope of Section 115 CPC is
limited and the award passed will not be disturbed
unless following grounds are made out by the
petitioner:
(i) the award so passed is without jurisdiction
or in excess of jurisdiction vested with the
Tribunal.
(ii) the award so passed, if allowed to stand
would occasion in failure of justice or cause
irreparable injury to the party against whom
it was made.
Some illustrations wherein the cases under
these categories can be examined are as
under:
(i) award where insurance policy has not been
issued by the Insurance Company.
(ii) Tribunal has recorded a finding that
injuries received by the Claimant are not
caused during the use or arising out of use of
motor vehicle yet compensation is awarded.
(iii) Where owner of the vehicle feels that
Insurance Company has been improperly
exonerated from payment of compensation.
(iv) Claimant may claim the amount of
compensation such as loss of suffering or
medical treatment which has not been
awarded by the Claims Tribunal though
sufficient evidence is available on record."
7. The Special Bench held that revision would not lie at the drop of a
hat in routine matter but would lie only in special circumstances. This may
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be when the award is without jurisdiction or excess of jurisdiction, would
occasion any failure of justice or cause irreparable injury to the aggrieved
party, where the insurance policy was not issued by the Insurance Company,
when despite finding that the injuries are not relatable to the motor vehicle
yet compensation is awarded, where the owner has been cast upon liability
by exonerating the Insurance Company or where the claimant may claim the
quantum to be at lower side.
8. The Special Bench did not grant any liberty to the Insurance
Company to file revisions as a matter of course in place of appeal which has
been specifically barred by the Legislature. No doubt, the contention of
learned counsel for the petitioner Insurance Company has substance that
since the legal issue is involved in the matter of interpretation of amended
Section 150 of the Act of 1988, therefore, the Insurance Company has filed
revision. This ground would have impressed this Court only if it was the
only case in which this legal issue had arisen and was required to be decided
by this Court only. The learned counsel for the Insurance Company was not
in a position to dispute that a number of appeals have been filed before this
Court in the matter of interpretation of Section 150 and number of litigations
are pending in that matter not only before this High Court but before other
High Courts, and also before the Hon'ble Supreme Court and, therefore, it
was not a case where if the award went unchallenged, the legal issue would
have been settled against the Insurance Company. Nor it is a case where to
get the legal issue settled, it was obligatory for the Company to have invoked
the revisional jurisdiction of this Court in which case it could have been said
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in terms of paragraph 18(ii) of judgment of the Special Bench that the award
would cause failure of justice or irreversible injury to the party against whom
it has been made. It is not even a case of fraud, or of false implication, where
the award if unchallenged, can be said to occasion failure of justice.
9. The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently in the case of Nirbhai
Singh and another vs. Darshan Singh @ Darshan Singh and others, reported
in 2025 SCC OnLine P & H 12450 has heavily deprecated the practice of
filing revisions or petitions under Article 227 of the Constitution of India
while holding that when statutory provisions prohibit filing of the statutory
appeal, affected party cannot be permitted to circumvent statutory provisions
of law by invoking the power of superintendence and accordingly the
revision petition was held to be not maintainable. The Punjab and
Haryana High Court held as under:-
"3. Section 173(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter
referred to as 'the MV Act') stood amended w.e.f. 01.04.2022 and
reads as under:
"(2) No appeal shall lie against any award of a Claims Tribunal if
the amount in dispute in the appeal is less than one lakh rupees."
4. A perusal of the above would show that the amount "ten
thousand" rupees has been replaced by the amount "one lakh" and
admittedly the amount of compensation awarded in the present
case is less than one lakh rupees.
5. In the case of Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Ltd. Vs.
Sahab Singh & Ors. [CR-6131-2016 decided on 19.09.2016], a
Coordinate Bench of this Court had observed that the plain and
simple reading of sub-section 2 of Section 173 of the MV Act
prohibits any person from challenging the award if the amount of
compensation is less than the amount mentioned in the said
provision. It was further observed that once statutory provisions
prohibit the filing of the statutory appeal, the affected party cannot
be permitted to circumvent the statutory provisions of law by
invoking the power of superintendence under Article 227 of the
Constitution of India and accordingly the revision petition was
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held to be not maintainable."
10. In view of the aforesaid legal position as discussed by this Court
above, it is clear that though the statutory mandate bars any challenge to the
award which is less than Rs.1.00 Lakh, but since it has been held by a
Special Bench of this Court in case of National Insurance Company Limited
(supra) that in certain circumstances revision can lie and this Court has
already reached a conclusion above that in the present case though a legal
question of larger importance does arise, but since that question has already
been raised in a number of matters before this Court and other High Courts
and before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, therefore, it was not a case
where despite small quantum being involved in the matter, any irreparable
loss would have been caused to the Insurance Company by not challenging
the award. The quantum in the present case is so less that the total cost
of litigation of this revision may be equal, if not more than the amount of
award which will be incurred by the Insurance Company alone and taking
into consideration the litigation cost to be incurred by the opposite party, the
total litigation cost in the present case would far surpass the financial value
of the award.
11. Therefore, this Court declines to entertain the present revision by
leaving the legal issues open which have already been raised by the
Insurance Company in various other cases.
12. In case, the claimant files any case for enhancement of the amount,
then the present Petitioner shall have a right to get this Revision restored.
13. With the aforesaid observations, admission is declined and the
Revision is dismissed.
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(VIVEK JAIN)
JUDGE
veni
