1 2026:CGHC:21906 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR MAC No. 1742 of 2019 Iffco Tokio General Insurance Co. Ltd. Branch Office Gaurishankar Mandir Road, Raigarg Chhattisgarh, District : Raigarh, Chhattisgarh ... Appellant Versus 1 - Ramsila Bai W/o Lt Dinesh Sahu Aged About 26 Years R/o Village Parsada, The - Jaijaipur, Ps Hasaud, Dist - Janjgir Champa Chhattisgarh, District : Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh 2 - Sameer Kumar S/o Lt Dinesh Sahu Aged About 6 Years R/o Village Parsada, The - Jaijaipur, Ps Hasaud, Dist - Janjgir Champa Chhattisgarh, District : Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh 3 - Vinay Kumar S/o Lt Dinesh Sahu Aged About 2 Years R/o Village Parsada, The - Jaijaipur, Ps Hasaud, Dist - Janjgir Champa Chhattisgarh, District : Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh 4 - Hiralal Sahu S/o Shivcharan Sahu Aged About 55 Years R/o Village Parsada, The - Jaijaipur, Ps Hasaud, Dist - Janjgir Champa Chhattisgarh, District : Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh 5 - Kaushalya Bai W/o Hiralal Sahu Aged About 50 Years R/o Village Parsada, The - Jaijaipur, Ps Hasaud, Dist - Janjgir Champa Chhattisgarh, District : Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh ... Respondents [Cause-title taken from Case Information System (CIS)] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For Appellant : Ms. Shrejal Gupta, Advocate on behalf of the Mr. Vaibhav Shukla, Advocate For Respondent : Mr. DK Singh, Advocate ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Single Bench: Hon'ble Shri Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal (Order on Board) 11.05.2026 1. This appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short the “Act of 1988”) has been preferred by the appellant- Insurance 2 Company challenging the impugned award dt. 25.06.2019, whereby learned Claims Tribunal has awarded a total sum of Rs.5,00,000/- as compensation to the claimants and liability to pay compensation has been fastened upon the insurance company. 2. Learned counsel for the appellant would submit that the deceased himself was the owner-cum-driver of the offending vehicle and was responsible for the accident, as no other vehicle was involved therein. In the present case, the deceased does not come within the purview of third party and, therefore, the claim application, as filed by the claimants, who are LRs of the deceased, under Section 163-A of the MV Act is not maintainable. Learned counsel further submits that by virtue of Insurance Policy, the risk of the owner-cum-driver was covered only to the extent of Rs.1,00,000/-, however, without considering the said fact, the Claims Tribunal has erred in awarding Rs.5,00,000/- as compensation to the claimants. Learned counsel relied upon the decision of the Supreme Court in the matter of Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. v. Rajni Devi and others 1 . Thus, the instant appeal be allowed and impugned award is liable to be set aside. 3. On the other hand, learned counsel appearing for the respondent supported the impugned award and prays for dismissal of this appeal. 4. I have heard learned counsel for the parties, considered their rival submissions made herein-above and went through the records with utmost circumspection. 5. In the case at hand, since the deceased was himself driver-cum- 1 (2008) 5 SCC 736 3 owner of the offending vehicle, in light of the decision of Rajni Devi (supra), the claim application filed under Section 163-A of the MV Act would not be maintainable. However, the same will not bar the claimants to get compensation on the head of personnel accidental coverage, as according to the Insurance Policy, for the risk of owner and driver Rs.50/- premium has been paid and, therefore, the claimants will be entitled for Rs.1,00,000/- only as compensation in the present case. 6. In view of the aforesaid discussion, the amount of compensation of Rs.5,00,000/- awarded by the Claims Tribunal is reduced to Rs.1,00,000/- only. Rest of the conditions of the impugned award shall remain intact. Accordingly, this appeal is allowed in part and the impugned award is modified to the extent as indicated herein-above. sd/- (Sanjay K. Agrawal) Judge s@if