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Judgment
The present appeal is preferred by the appellant original claimant against the judgment and award dated 10.6.2016 passed by learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (Main), Mehsana in Motor Accident Claim Petition No.914 of 2009.
By way of preferring the present appeal, the appellant has, inter alia, contended that learned Tribunal without affording any reasonable opportunity of adducing the evidence, as the claimant has failed to adduce the evidence and as the matter has become more than eight years old, considering the said aspect, learned Tribunal has dismissed the claim petition for want of evidence on record in order to give top priority to the old cases as the High Court and the Apex Court have directed to dispose of the five years old cases. It is contended that therefore the impugned award is not on merits. Lastly, it is requested to remand the matter to decide afresh after affording reasonable opportunity of hearing and adducing the evidence to the claimant as well as respondents.
Heard Mr.Yogendra Thakore, learned advocate for the appellant. Though served, none appears for the respondents.
This Court has gone through the impugned judgment and award as well as material made available in the nature of paper book to this Court.
Considered the submissions made by learned advocate for the appellant in light of the observations made by learned Tribunal in paragraphs 8 and 9 of the impugned judgment and award. Paragraphs 8 and 9 of the impugned judgment and award read as under:
[8] This matter is more than five years old. The Honourable Supreme Court of India has issued directions to dispose the five years old matters, by giving priority, according to law. Considering the guidelines of the Honourable Supreme Court of India and also considering many directions, issued by the Honourable High Court of Gujarat to dispose of cases which are pending for more than five years, by giving top priority, as early as possible.
[9] Considering the above mentioned facts and discussions, this matter is about five years old and then also the claimant and their learned advocate has continuously remained absent and has not produced any kind of evidence, which are required for calculation of amount of compensation and hence this Tribunal has no option except to dismiss the claim petition of the petitioner.
Indisputably, learned Tribunal has not recorded its findings after allowing the original claimant to lead the evidence and the same has been dismissed merely taking into consideration the guidelines for deciding such petitions within a period of five years which has resulted into serious miscarriage of justice as the claimant did not get any opportunity of hearing as such, though they are victims of the accident and they have lost their bread winner in the accident.
In this view of the matter, this Court deems it appropriate to remand the matter to learned Tribunal to decide and dispose of the claim petition filed by the claimant within a period of six months after allowing the parties to adduce the evidence within a period of two months and also to afford opportunity of hearing.
In the result, this appeal succeeds and the same is allowed. The impugned judgment and award dated 10.6.2016 passed by learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (Main), Mehsana in Motor Accident Claim Petition No.914 of 2009 is hereby quashed and set aside. The matter is remanded to learned Tribunal concerned to decide and dispose of the claim petition filed by the claimant within a period of six months after allowing the parties to adduce the evidence within a period of two months and also to afford opportunity of hearing. It is needless to say that this Court has not gone into the merits of the case and learned Tribunal shall decide and dispose of the claim petition on its own merits and without being influenced by this order.
Direct service is permitted.