Tripura High Court
New India Assurance Co.Ltd vs Bimalendu Das And 4 Ors on 12 November, 2021
HIGH COURT OF TRIPURA
AGARTALA
IA 4 of 2021
In MAC App.140 of 2013(D/O)
New India Assurance Co.ltd.
-------Petitioner(s)
Versus
Bimalendu Das And 4 Ors.
-----Respondent(s)
BEFORE
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S.G. CHATTOPADHYAY
For Petitioner(s) : Mr. S.Das, Adv.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. A.Gan Chaudury, Adv.
ORDER
12.11.2021
[1] By filing this IA, the applicants sought for amendment
of their application filed in IA 3 of 2021. The applicants namely Bijit
Das and Arijit Das filed T.S (MAC)85 of 2011 before MACT (Court
No.2)Agartala along with their father namely Bimalendu Das
seeking compensation owing to the death of their mother Smt. Ratna
Das in a road traffic accident. Tribunal passed an award on
01.07.2013 in their favour. A sum of Rs.10,81,464/- along with 9%
annual interest thereon was awarded by the Tribunal in favour of the
claimants.
[2] The insurance company filed an appeal against the said
award before this court which was registered as MAC App. 140 of
2013, by judgment and order dated 28.07.2016 the said MAC Appeal
was dismissed by this court observing as under:
"In my opinion, the aforesaid findings and
assessment made by the Tribunal do not suffer from any
illegality, and are, as a matter of fact, consistent with the
decision of the Apex Court Arun Kumar Agarwal (supra).
The impugned award, therefore, does not suffer from any
illegality or arbitrariness calling for the interference of
this Court.
Resultantly, this appeal has no merit and is
accordingly dismissed."
[3] During the pendency of the appeal, the insurance
company deposited the awarded sum of compensation. After the
compensation was deposited by the insurance company, the original
claimants filed a petition before this Court on 01.12.2014 seeking
reimbursement of the compensation in their favour. Said petition was
registered as CM Application 604 of 2014 in MAC Appeal No.140
of 2013. By an order dated 08.01.2015, said CM application No.604
of 2014 was disposed of by this Court observing as under:
"The learned MACT passed an award of
Rs.10,56,464/- in favour of the claimants. This amount is
payable to the claimants in equal shares.
The appeal is still pending. Therefore, it is directed
that a sum of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One lakh) each shall
be paid to each of the claimants by remitting it to their
personal Bank accounts details whereof along with
photocopies of the first page of the passbook be submitted
in the Registry of this Court within 2(two) weeks from
today. Remaining amount shall be kept in a fixed deposit
for a period of 5 years.
The application is accordingly disposed of."
Accordingly, sum of Rs.1,00,000/- was released in
favour of each of the petitioners in terms of order dated 08.01.2014.
[4] As the remaining amount of compensation was invested
in bank in a term deposit for a period of 5 years in the name of the
original claimants, they could not withdraw the money at that time.
However, on expiry of 5 years, among the 03 original claimants, 02
claimants namely Bijit Das and his full blooded brother Arijit Das
had withdrawn their share of the compensation after the term
deposits were matured. Their father namely Bimalendu Das who was
also a claimant with them in the original claim petition, died on
12.09.2017 before his share of the compensation was disbursed in
his favour. Therefore, original claimants namely Bijit Das and Arijit
Das who are full blooded brothers filed a petition before this Court
on 22.09.2021 seeking disbursal of his father's share of the
compensation in their favour. In support of their claim they also filed
the death certificate of their father issued by the Birth and Death
Registrar of Kanchannagar Gram Panchayat of Bokafa RD Block,
Santirbazar [Annexure-4] and the Survival certificate issued by the
Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDM). It was stated in paragraph
6 of the said petition that after the death of their mother in accident,
their father contracted a second marriage and a son was born within
the said wed-lock of their father.
[5] It was submitted on behalf of the petitioners that a
petition would be filed for impleading the second wife and her son as
party to the petition. However, in view of the averments made in IA
No.03 of 2021, notice was issued to the second wife of their
deceased father and Surajit Das (minor) born to the deceased through
his second marriage. The present petition i.e. IA 4 of 2021 is still
pending. Since notice has been issued to the second wife of the
deceased father of the petitioners, and she along with her son has
also appeared in this case in response to the said notice, the present
petition i.e. IA No.4 stands disposed of with a direction to the
claimants to file an amended petition in IA No.3 of 2021 impleading
the second wife of the their deceased father and Master Surajit Das
as party to this case.
The petition is accordingly disposed of.
JUDGE
Saikat Sarma, PS-II
