The Delhi High Court has directed a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal here to conduct a fresh inquiry into the involvement of a car in an accident to decide a claim for compensation by the victim.
Justice Suresh Kait passed the order on an appeal by the victim against the Tribunal order. The Tribunal had rejected the claim filed by Shiv Prasad Maurya citing contradictions in his statement about the registration number of the vehicle involved in the accident.
In the FIR, the victim had given the registration number of an Opel Astra while in his evidence in the Court he said that the vehicle involved in the accident was a WagonR.
He further submitted when it struck him that he had given a wrong number of the vehicle involved in the accident, he wrote to the Regional Transport Office concerned seeking verification of the registration number.
The officer concerned had corrected the number, he claimed.
Through his lawyer, he later informed the investigating officer about the verification he had sought from the Transport Office and the corrected number he got from it.
The investigating officer had then issued a notice to the owner of the vehicle with the corrected number and the latter had responded to it, the appeal stated.
Further, the Court had released the same vehicle to the owner on ‘supardari’ which was involved in the accident.
Allowing the appeal by the victim, Justice Suresh Kait said: “In view of the above, I find force in the submissions of the learned counsel for the appellant as the learned Tribunal has not conducted any inquiry on the documents available on record and dismissed the petition filed by the claimant…’’
“Without commenting on the impugned order, I set aside the same order and direct the learned Tribunal to conduct a fresh inquiry and pass the order accordingly,’’ Justice Kait stated.
