A Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) in the city has directed a vehicle owner and an insurance company to pay a compensation of Rs. 10.5 lakhs to a 32-year-old who had sustained injuries in a road accident involving his Hyundai Eon and the opposite party’s car in 2012.
The mishap took place on 11 October 2012 at 4 PM on Mumbai - Pune Expressway’s Kon Bridge when applicant Girish Gadia was driving his car. He claimed the speeding car that neither honked nor gave an indicator hit his vehicle and he sustained injuries.
The tribunal however refused to accept Gadia’s claim that he had suffered 52 percent permanent partial disability in the accident and said that considering the nature of injury, at most it can be said that he might have suffered 10 percent temporary disability.
It said the treating doctor of Aditya Birla Hospital in Pune where he was admitted after the mishap has not been examined by the applicant and no efforts were taken to record his evidence through video conference or court commission. Therefore, it stated that it cannot be accepted at all that he had suffered such an extent of disability. The tribunal said it is important to note that while an orthopaedic doctor was examined by him who had provided the disability certificate, that this doctor had not provided any treatment to the applicant, nor taken any fresh X-Ray or examined him clinically or radiologically.
It relied on police documents such as the FIR and spot panchnama to conclude that the Pune resident had suffered injuries in the motor accident due to negligence on the part of the driver of the offending vehicle. It relied on medical documents to decide compensation on expenses incurred among other heads.
The insurance company ICICI Lombard General Insurance had opposed the claim contending that the accident took place due to sole negligence of Gadia. The tribunal found it did not bring any evidence on record to prove the contention and hence rejected it.
