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TMI Blog1987 (5) TMI 377X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , a boy named Bhanubhai, aged 14 years, was run over by the bus resulting in his untimely death. Ramanbhai and Dineshbhai, who were the brothers of the deceased, instituted a petition before the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (Auxiliary), Vadodara, claiming compensation for the death of their brother alleging that they were the heirs and legal representatives of the deceased. The Tribunal awarded a sum of ₹ 32,000 as compensation to the claimants-and directed the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation to pay the said amount to the claimants. Against the award of the Tribunal, the Gujarat State Transport Corporation filed an appeal before the High Court of Gujarat under section 110D of the Act. That appeal was dismissed. This Special Leave Petition is filed against the judgment of the High Court. The only point convassed before us in this Special Leave Petition is that the Tribunal and the High Court were in error in awarding compensation in favour of the brothers of the deceased, since in law they were not entitled to any compensation under the provisions of the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 and in support of the said contention, reliance was placed by the petitioner on the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... recovery of damages for the death of a person caused by the wrongful act of another person did not survive on the death of the person to his legal representatives in England as a measure of law reform the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 was passed for compensating the families of persons killed by accidents. That Act provided that whensoever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default, and the act, neglect, or default is such as would (if death had not ensued) have entitled the party injured to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof, then and in every such case the person who would have been liable if death had not ensued shall be liable to an action for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured . The said Act further provided that every such action shall be for the benefit of the wife, husband, parent, and child of the person whose death shah have been so caused, and shall be brought by and in the name of the executor or administrator of the person deceased; and in every such action the jury may give such damages as they may think proportioned to the injury resulting from such death to the parties respectively for whom a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... administrator or representative of the deceased may insert a claim for, and recover any pecuniary loss to the estate of the deceased occasioned by such wrongful act, neglect or default, which sum, when recovered, shall be deemed part of the assets of the estate of the deceased. (emphasis added) The comparison between the English Fatal Accidents Act, 1846 and the Indian Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 shows that they are almost identical insofar as the persons for whose benefit action for compensation could be brought on the death of a person, and they are, wife, husband, parent and child of the deceased. The English law was, however, modified insofar as the above question was concerned by the Fatal Accidents Act, 1959. Section 1 of that Act provides that the persons for whose benefit and by whom an action may be brought under the Fatal Accidents Act, 1846 shall include any person who is, or is the issue of a brother, sister, uncle or aunt of the deceased person and in deducing any relationship for the purposes of the said Act it further provides that (a) an adopted person should be treated as a child of the person or the persons by whom he was adopted and not of the child of any o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the deceased's spouse, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, and-in the case of the last four relatives--their issue. Relationships by marriage are treated as blood relationships; a legally adopted child is treated as a natural child; and an illegitimate child is treated as the legitimate child of his mother and reputed father. 'Half' and 'step' relationships are treated as full relationships. 402. In Scotland, those entitled to claim damages for loss of support also include all ascendants and descendants; any person accepted by the deceased as a child of his family (whether or not legally adopted); and a divorced spouse. The full list, contained in Schedule I to the Damages (Scotland) Act, 1976, is as follows: a. any person who immediately before the deceased's death was the spouse of the deceased; b. any person who was a parent or child of the deceased; c. any person not falling within paragraph-b above who was accepted by the deceased as a child of his family; d. any person who was an ascendant or descendant (other than a parent or child) of the deceased; e. any person who was, or was the issue of, a broth ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ntries by expanding the list of relatives who are entitled to claim compensation on the death of a person. It is surprising that the Law Commission of India recommended that the provisions of the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 should be adhered to insofar as the persons who were entitled to claim compensation was concerned. We shall now proceed to consider the effect of the amendment of the Act insofar as the question of compensation payable on the death of a person as a result of a motor vehicle accident is concerned. It is submitted that the provisions in Chapter VIII of the Act to which we shall presently refer are merely procedural in character under which an alternative forum is created for deciding the question of compensation payable in respect of injuries and death caused on account of motor vehicles accidents and that they have not modified in any manner the substantive law governing the said question. In other words it is argued that the principles contained in the Law of Torts, as modified by the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855, alone would govern the said question even now. In support of the above submission reliance is placed on the decision of this Court in Minu B. Mehta and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nsation on account of motor vehicles accidents, is It is true that Chapter VIII of the Act provides for an alternative forum for realisation of compensation payable on account of motor vehicles accidents but as we shall presently show it is not correct to say that the said provisions in Chapter VIII of the Act are merely procedural. When the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 was enacted there were no motor vehicles on the roads in India. Today, thanks to the modern civilization, thousands of motor vehicles are put on the road and the largest number of injuries and deaths are taking place on the roads on account of the motor vehicles accidents. In view of the fast and constantly increasing volume of traffic, the motor vehicles upon the roads may be regarded to some extent as coming within the principle of liability defined in Rylands v. Fletcher, [1868] LR. 3 H.L. 330, 340. From the point of view of the pedestrian the roads of this country have been rendered by the use of the motor vehicles highly dangerous. 'Hit and run' cases where the drivers of the motor vehicles who have caused the accidents are not known are increasing in number. Where a pedestrian without negligence on his pa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ual common law principle that a claimant should establish negligence on the part of the owner or driver of the motor vehicle before claiming any compensation for the death or permanent disablement caused on account of a motor vehicle accident. To that extent the substantive law of the country stands modified. The special provisions contained in section 109-A to section 109-C of the Act providing for a scheme for granting relief to victims or the legal representatives of victims of 'hit and run' motor vehicle accident cases is another novel effort on the part of the Government to remedy the situation created by the modern society which has been responsible for introducing so many fast moving vehicles on roads. Now we shali analyse the provisions of Chapter VIII of the Act which deals with the insurance of motor vehicles against third party risk. Sections 93 to 111-A are in that Chapter. The Act insists that the owner of a motor vehicle should take out an insurance policy to cover third party risk except in some specified cases. Section 102 of the Act provides that notwithstanding anything contained in section 306 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, the death of a person in w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . (2) Every application under subsection (1) shall be made to the Claims Tribunal having jurisdiction over the area in which the accident occurred, and shall be in such form and shall contain such particulars as may be prescribed. Provided that where any claim for compensation under section 92A is made in such application, the application shall contain a separate statement to that effect immediately before the signature of the applicant. (3) No application for such compensation shall be entertained unless it is made within six months of the occurrence of the accident: Provided that the Claims Tribunal may entertain the application after the expiry of the said period of six months if it is satisfied that the applicant was prevented by sufficient cause from making the application in time. Clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (1) of section 110-A of the Act provide that an application for compensation arising out of an accident may be made where death has resulted from the accident by all or any of the legal representatives of the deceased or by any agent duly authorised by all or any of the legal representatives of the deceased. The proviso to sub-section (1) of section 11 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted above for the provisions of section 1A of the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 which provides that every such action or suit shall be for the benefit of the wife, husband, parent and child, if any, of the person whose death shall have been so caused, and shall be brought by and in the name of the executor, administrator or representative of the person deceased. While the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 provides that such suit shall be for the benefit of the wife, husband, parent and child of the deceased, section 110-A(1) of the Act says that the application shall be made on behalf of or for the benefit of the legal representatives of the deceased. A legal representative in a given case need not necessarily be a wife, husband, parent and child. It is further seen from section 110-B of the Act that the Claims Tribunal is authorised to make an award determining the amount of compensation which appears to it to be just and specifying the person or persons to whom compensation shall be paid. This provision takes the place of the third paragraph of section 1A of the Fatal Accidents Act. 1855 which provides that in every such action, the Court may give such damages as it may think proportioned ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . v. Hanumantha Rao, [1975] ACJ 344 (Andhra Pradesh). These cases lay down that while the compensation payable under section 1A of the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 is restricted to the relatives of the deceased named therein the compensation payable under section 2 thereof may be awarded in favour of the representatives of the deceased who are entitled to succeed to the estate of the deceased. The third group of cases are those referred to in paragraph 7 of the judgment of the Gujarat High Court. They are Mohammed Habibullah and another v. K. Seethammal, A.I.R. 1967 Mad. 123; Veena Kumari Kohli v. Punjab Roadways, [1967] ACJ 297 (Pb.) and Smt. Ishwar Devi Malik v. Union of India, A.I.R. 1969 Delhi 183 which take the view that a claim for compensation arising out of the use of a motor vehicle would be exclusively governed by the provisions of sections 110 to 110-F of the Act and bears no connection to claims under the 1855 Act and the Claims Tribunal need not follow the principles laid down under the latter Act. Having considered all the three sets of decisions referred to above, Ahmadi, J. who wrote the judgment in Megjibhai Khimji Vira and another v. Chaturbhai Taljabhai and others ( ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e concluding we may add that although the Act was extensively modified after the receipt of the report of the Law Commission, Parliament did not choose to amend section 110-A of the Act by defining the expression 'legal representatives' in relation to claims under Chapter VIII of the Act as 'the spouse, parent and children of the deceased' as recommended by the Law Commission. The Law Commission had observed in its 85th report that it would be appropriate to assign to the expression 'legal representative' the same meaning as had been given to the expression 'representative' for the purposes of the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 and that would effectively carry-out the purpose of social justice underlying Chapter VIII of the Act, to which the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 was the nearest approximation. This recommendation was made after referring to the divergent views expressed by the various High Courts on the meaning of the expression 'legal representatives' in section 110-A of the Act. The fact that Parliament declined to take any action on the recommendation of the Law Commission of India suggests that Parliament intended that the expression ' ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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