State of Rajasthan Vs. Smt. Anop Devi and ors. - Court Judgment

Excerpt:
- - although the tribunal in the beginning of the award ha's pointed out the circumstances in which the case came to be dealt with by the tribunal but i would like to know as to how this delay occurred and in what situation in order to fix the responsibility for this exorbitant delay in deciding the case in question.p.k. palli, j. 1. the present appeal is directed against the judgment/award passed by the motor accidents claim tribunal, bhilwara. one kan singh deceased was going to his house and was on the right side of the road and the driver of the truck while driving rashly and negligently hit the bicycle from behind resulting in his death on the spot. the accident claim was filed by the widow and the son of the deceased. the incident took place on 31st may, 1980. after carefully scrutinizing the evidence on record, the learned tribunal gave the award for rs. 62,600/- and held the owner of the truck, the insurance company and the state of rajasthan to be jointly and severally liable. an interest at the rate of 9% p.a. has also been awarded. the truck at the relevant time was on election dutyhaving been requisitioned by the state. 2. having carefully perused the award, i find no ground to interfere and affirm the findings recorded by the tribunal. 3. the appeal is consequently devoid of merit and is dismissed. 4. before parting with the order i cannot refrain myself from observing that it is pitiable state of affairs that the accident having taken place as back as on 31st may, 1980 and the only bread-earner of the family having been killed on the spot, the claim petition was filed as back as llth july, 1980. it took more than 13 years for handing down the award by the motor accidents claim tribunal. the procedural delays and the callousness with which the matter was dealt shakes my judicial conscious. the child and the widow of the deceased had to struggle for more than 13 years to get compensation in a death case. it virtually amounts to a complete denial of justice to the claimants. it can be anybody's guess as to how these dependants would have spent this period in these hard days. although the tribunal in the beginning of the award ha's pointed out the circumstances in which the case came to be dealt with by the tribunal but i would like to know as to how this delay occurred and in what situation in order to fix the responsibility for this exorbitant delay in deciding the case in question. the tribunal is directed to find out and report after perusing of the record as to how the case was dealt with at different stages right from the date the claim was put in till the final decision. the report should reach with in four weeks from the date of this order along with records of the case for further action in the matter. i hope the courts of law and a tribunals in such situations would take extra care to dispose of such type of cases as expeditiously as possible and in any case wihin a year from the date of the claim. the authorities dealing with such matters should put themselves in the position of the claimants and give justice to them avoiding unnecessary procedural delays.