Orissa High Court
M/S. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd vs Fulamani Mahanta And Others on 12 April, 2023
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
MACA No.210 of 2011
M/s. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. .... Appellant
Mr. G.P. Dutta, Advocate
-versus-
Fulamani Mahanta and others .... Respondents
Mr. B. Tripathy, Advocate for Respondent Nos.1 & 2
Mr. B. Dasmohapatra, Advocate for Respondent No.5
.
CORAM:
JUSTICE B. P. ROUTRAY
ORDER
12.04.2023
Order No.
18. 1. Heard Mr. G.P. Dutta, learned counsel for the Appellant-
Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd., Mr. B. Tripathy, learned counsel for
the Respondent Nos.1 & 2-claimants and Mr. B. Dasmohapatra,
learned counsel for the Respondent No.5-United India Insurance
Co. Ltd.
2. Present appeal by Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. is directed
against the judgment dated 27.09.2010 of learned 2nd M.A.C.T.,
Cuttack in Misc. Case No.286/94, wherein compensation to the
tune of Rs.1,84,000/- has been granted along with interest @7%
per annum to the claimants from the date of filing of the claim
application, i.e. 6.4.1994 on account of death of the deceased in
the motor vehicular accident dated 8.3.1994.
3. It is contended by Mr. Dutta, learned counsel for the Appellant,
who is the insurer of the Truck, that the Appellant is not liable to
indemnify the compensation amount since the driver of the
offending Truck was not negligent for the accident.
4. It is seen that the deceased was travelling in the offending Trax
vehicle bearing Regd. No.OR-04-7857 at the time of accident and
there was head on collision between the offending Truck bearing
Regd. No.ORY-2699 and the Trax. The learned Tribunal while
discussing negligence aspect has held that the drivers of both the
vehicles were equally negligent for causing the accident and as
such directed for sharing the compensation amount between two
insurers equally.
5. Learned Tribunal has arrived at the conclusion based on
evidences of the witnesses examined on behalf of the claimants
and the findings given in the Police investigation report. No
evidence has been adduced by the present Appellant, i.e. Oriental
Insurance Co. Ltd. except production of a copy of the final form
prepared by the Police. Therefore, what is contended now on
behalf of the Appellant that the driver of the offending Trax was
entirely negligent has no basis to stand. As such, the finding of
learned Tribunal distributing negligence between both the drivers
equally is confirmed.
6. With regard to quantification of compensation amount, no
reason is found to reduce the same in favour of the insurer and as
such, I am not inclined to interfere with the same.
7. Mr. B. Tripathy, learned counsel for the claimants-Respondent
Nos.1 & 2 does not want to press the Cross Appeal filed on behalf
of the claimants-Respondents.
8. In the result, the appeal is dismissed and the Appellant -
Insurance Company (Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd.) is directed to
deposit his share including interest as directed by the learned
Tribunal in the impugned award within a period of two months
from today, which shall be disbursed in favour of the claimants-
Respondent Nos.1 & 2 on same terms and proportion as
contended in the impugned judgment.
9. On deposit of the award amount before learned Tribunal and
filing of a receipt evidencing the deposit with a refund application
before this Court, the statutory deposit made before this Court
with accrued interest thereon shall be refunded to the Appellant-
Insurance Company.
10. An urgent certified copy of this order be granted on proper
application.
( B.P. Routray)
Judge
B.K. Barik
