Vidya Kakkar Vs. Delhi Transport Corporation - Court Judgment

Excerpt:
motor vehicle act - section 110-cc (amendment 1989)--claim of interest whether the claimant entitled. it was held that ordinarily a claimant is entitled to the interest on the amount of compensation awarded from the date of claim application unless he is guilty of delaying proceedings. - - co, the tribunals are invariably following the second course of granting interest only when there failure of depositing the compensation amount by the ins. shall draw up a cheque for the compensation amount as well as interest and deposit the same with the registrar of this court within two months from today.s.b. wad, j.(1) this appeal raises a common question of law as to whether interest should be awarded from the date of application for compensation or from the dale of the judgment on the default being committed by the ins. co, the tribunals are invariably following the second course of granting interest only when there failure of depositing the compensation amount by the ins. co. section 110 cc was inserted in the motor vehicles act, by section 62 of the motor vehicles (amendment) act, 1969, which took effect from 2-3-1970. it reads : 'where any court or claims. tribunal allows a claim for compensation made under this chapter, such court or tribunal may direct that in addition to the amount of compensation simple interest shall also be paid at such rate and from such date not earlier than the date of making the claim as it may specify in this behalf.'(2) it may be noted that the section does not lay down as to whether the interest is payable from the date of the application or from a subsequent date. it is thus left to the discretion of the tribunal. a civil court always has the power to grant pendent life and future interest where money payment is ordered. but, fact is a creature of the m.v. act. its powers were limited to those given by the act and no more. that was the reason why the amendment in question was required to be incorporated in the act, so as to give powers to the tribunal to award interest. (3) 'interest' is differently described in law in different contexts. for example, interest means compensation paid by the borrower to the lender for deprivation of the use his money' (1947) a.c. 399. it is also stated in common law that interest on money covers general damages. interest is payable if there is a contract to that effect or because of the wrongful withholding of the money. the discretion of the court comes in where interest is payable as compensation for deprivation of the use of money or where the money is wrongfully withheld. under the m.v. act it is sufficient that there is deprivation of the use of money, i.e. compensation, and it is not necessary that this withholding is wrongful for the purposes of paying interest. (4) in the payment of interest, pendents lite or future, the discretion has to be judicially and judiciously exercised. as a normal rule the claimants would not be interested in delaying the proceedings. as a matter of fact, they would be in a hurry to terminate the proceedings ana to receive compensation. there is an urgency of rehabilitation of relation of victims, which arc usually widow and children. it may also be a case of very old parents requiring support of the only son. on the contrary, the owner of the vehicle and, at times, the ins. co. would be interested in prolonging the litigation so as to delay the payment. thereforee, the normal rule should be payment of interest from the date of application unless the tribunal comes to a finding that the claimants were responsible for delaying the proceedings. it must be remembered that the interest is being paid for the deprivation of the use of money belonging and payable to the claimants. since the court dockets are crowded there is considerable delay in the disposal of the claim petitions before the tribunal and, thereafter, in the appeals in this court. the deprivation may be of use of money for their marriage. there may also be a case where the old parents suffer from serious illness requiring timely money for their treatment. thus, what the tribunal is concerned with is whether the claim ants are deprived of the use of money and whether the deprivation is caused by the act of the claimants themselves. the question whether on the quantification of the compensation by the tribunal and on the making of the award, the owner/ins, co. have made any default in the payment of compensation. payment of interest is not in the nature of penalty for non-compliance of the tribunal's order. thereforee, the practice followed by the tribunals in delhi, viz of awarding interest on the condition of default in payment of compensation by owner/ills, co. is not exercising discretion in a judicial or reasonable manner. (5) there are various decisions of the high court in support of the view that interest is payable from the date of application. they are . in all the decisions of the supreme court in the recent past interest is invariably awarded from the date of the application. (6) the tribunals should, thereforee, grant interest from the date of application unless they are convinced that the claimants were responsible for protracting the case and causing delay. the tribunals must record the finding with relevant dates from the order sheets to show how the claimants were responsible for the delay. if there is no positive finding in regard to the claimants responsibility, interest must be awarded from the date of the application. there is no warrant in law for making any conditional order of payment of interest from the date of the judgment and that too on the condition of the default in payment of compensation within a specified period by owner/ins. co. (7) what is an appropriate rate of interest in a given case is a question of fact to be gone in to by the tribunal. what the law expects is payment of adequate compensation to the claimants to rehabilitate them in life as the family would have expected it the victim would not have died. rate of interest, thereforee, should be accordingly adjusted so as to overall work out a just compensation. as noted earlier, interest has also an element of compensation. (8) this appeal was admitted only on the question of interest. the tribunal has awarded conditional interest @ 12% per annum if the d.t.c. did not satisfy the award within three months from the date of the award. it is not stated in the judgment of the tribunal as io whether the interest from the date of application for claim is not being granted because of the conduct of the claimants. thereforee, the interest ought to have been granted from the date of application. in order to satisfy myself, i examined the order sheets before the tribunal and i do not find that the claimants had deliberately delayed the proceedings. i, thereforee, award 9% simple interest per annum from the date of application till the date of payment. the d.t.c. shall draw up a cheque for the compensation amount as well as interest and deposit the same with the registrar of this court within two months from today. if the compensation amount, as awarded by the tribunal has already been paid, the d.t.c. shall be entitled to credit for such payment and proportionate interest. the registrar shall disburse the amount after due notice to the parties.