Balbir vs Jagdev Singh and others

S.S. Sodhi, J.—The challenge here is to the order of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Ludhiana, declining to set aside the dismissal of the claim application in default and holding that there was no sufficient cause for condonation of the delay in moving the application for seeking the restoration of the claim application.

The record shows that the claimants filed the claim application on October 16, 1982 and after several hearings service upon the respondents was effected only on April 4, 1983, when the case was adjourned to April 16, 1983. Neither the claimants nor their counsel appeared on that date and the claim application was accordingly dismissed in default.

On June 2, 1983 the claimants filed an application for restoration of the claim application along with an application u/s 5 of the Limitation Act seeking condonation of the delay in filing of this application. It was mentioned therein that on April 16, 1983 the husband of the claimant was lying seriously ill at Moga and he remained confined to bed for more than 40 days and it was on that account that she could not attend the court nor file the application earlier.

The Tribunal in deciding against the claimants laid great stress upon the fact that if the claimant could not appear in the court on the date of hearing no reasons had been mentioned in the application to suggest why her counsel could not do so.

This is a wholly untenable approach, as even if it be taken that the counsel was negligent in not having appeared, the claimants cannot be penalised for it in the context of the circumstances of the claimants as spelt out earlier.

The impugned order of the Tribunal is accordingly hereby set aside and the case is remitted to the Tribunal for fresh decision in accordance with law. Parties are directed to appear before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Ludhiana on October 3, 1988.