Punjab and Haryana High Court: Alka Sarin, J., has upheld the award by Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) stating that it is duty of the claimant to prove the factum of the accident in the proceedings under the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 (MV Act’).
The present appeal was preferred by the claimant against the award dated 13-08-2015 passed by the MACT whereby the claim petition filed by the claimant was dismissed on the ground that the factum of the accident was not proved.
The contentions of the claimant were found to be vague and they were not able to ‘remotely prove’ the factum of the accident against the truck and the truck driver who was alleged to have been driving rashly and negligently.
The Court observed that the entire story was set up by the claimants. The Court did not find anything on the record to show when the brother of the deceased came to know about the registration number of the truck, he did not inform the Police. The Court said that it is the trite that the claimants in the proceedings under MV Act have to prove their case on the touchstone of preponderance of probabilities and hence, dismissed the instant appeal and all other pending applications upholding the award passed by the MACT.
[Krishna Devi v. Balvinder Singh, 2022 SCC OnLine P&H 1794, decided on 14-07-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Mr. Arjun Sharma, Advocate, Counsel for the Appellants.