The Permanent Lok Adalat (PLA), Ernakulam, has ordered an insurance company to pay a claim worth Rs.2.85 lakh to a Kothamangalam-based school management towards the damage caused to its bus after a tree fell on it.
The PLA, comprising Chairman S. Jagadees and member C. Radhakrishnan, issued the order allowing a petition filed by the managing trustee of Vidya Vikas School. The tree fell on the vehicle on June 26, 2015 on the Aluva-Munnar road, killing five students and injuring several others.
The petitioner had pointed out that the bus had been insured from June 11, 2015 to June 10, 2016.
The insurance company had rejected the petitioner’s claim on the grounds that the contract carriage permit had expired two days before the accident.
The PLA observed that the permit had been issued under Section 66 of the Motor Vehicles Act.
“Section 81 of the Act provides that permit be renewed on an application made not less than 15 days before the date of its expiry. Besides, Section 81(3) of the Act provides that the Regional Transport Authority has the authority to entertain an application for renewal of permit after the date specified, if it was satisfied that the applicant was prevented by sufficient cause from making the application within the time prescribed,” it said.
The Adalat said the company had no case that the vehicle was used for a purpose not allowed by the permit.
The school bus owned by the petitioner had met with an accident in which 5 children died
