1 CGHC010058382020 2026:CGHC:31668 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR MAC No. 434 of 2020 1 - Hdfc Ergo General Insurance Company Limited Chandni Chawk, Raigarh, District Raigarh, Chhattisgarh At Present Chawla Complex, 3rd Floor, Devendra Nagar Road, Raipur Chhattisgarh. (Insurer Of J.C.B. Case No. 770). (Insurance Company), District : Raipur, Chhattisgarh --- Appellant Versus 1 - Pawan Kumar Neti S/o Jameshwar Singh Neti Aged About 33 Years R/o Gurasiya, Tahsil Podi, Uproda, District Korba Chhattisgarh. (Claimant), District : Korba, Chhattisgarh 2 - Manoj Kumar Chauhan (Died And Deleted) As Per Hon'ble Court Order Dated 16.01.2026 3 - Sunil Kumar Agrawal R/o Near Bus Stand, Patthalgaon, Tahsil Patthalgaon, District Jashpur Chhattisgarh. (Owner Of J.C.B. Case No. 770)., District : Jashpur, Chhattisgarh --- Respondents MAC No. 2319 of 2019 1 - Pawan Kumar Neti S/o Jameshwar Singh Neti Aged About 33 Years Caste - Gond, R/o Gursiya, Tahsil Podi Uproda, District - Korba Chhattisgarh. ( Actual Name Of His Father Is Jageshwar Singh Neti ), District : Korba, Chhattisgarh ---Appellant Versus 2 1 - Manoj Kumar Chauhan S/o Nanau Ram Chauhan Aged About 30 Years R/o Rajpur, Police Station Lailunga, District - Raigarh Chhattisgarh., District : Raigarh, Chhattisgarh 2 - Sunil Kumar Agrawal, R/o Near Bus Stand, Patthalgaon, Tahsil Patthalgaon, District - Jashpur Chhattisgarh., District : Jashpur, Chhattisgarh 3 - The H. D. F . C. I R G O General Insurance Company Limited, Branch Chandani Chowk, Raigarh, District - Raigarh Chhattisgarh., District : Raigarh, Chhattisgarh --- Respondents MAC No. 434/2020 For Appellant : Mr. Ashish Pandey, Advocate For Respondents : Mr. Savind Kumar, Advocate MAC No. 2319/2019 For Appellants : Mr. Savind Kumar, Advocate For Respondents No. 3 : Mr. Ashish Pandey, Advocate S.B.: Hon'ble Shri Sanjay K. Agrawal, Judge Order On Board 24/07/2026 1. As both the appeals are arising out of common award, they are being heard together and disposed of by this common judgment. 2. Appellant/Insurance Company in MAC No. 434/2020 has challenged the liability fastened upon it to pay the amount of compensation of Rs. 2,67,480/- awarded by the learned Additional Tribunal to Upper Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Katghora, District – Korba (for short ‘the Claims Tribunal’) vide award dated 23.09.2019 in Claim Case No. 135/2014. 3. Appellants-Claimants in MAC No. 2319/2019 have sought enhancement of compensation awarded by the learned Claims Tribunal. 4. Facts of the case is that the applicant has stated in his application before the learned Claims Tribunal that on 01.04.2012, he was travelling from his village Gursainya to his former place of residence at 3 Village Dhawalpur, Police Station Khadgawan, on his motorcycle bearing Registration No. CG-16/F-2583. When the applicant reached near Village Kullahariya, Respondent No. 1 was carrying out road- widening work with a JCB machine bearing Registration No. KS-770. At the time when the applicant had stopped his motorcycle on the side of the road and was blowing its horn to give way, Respondent No. 1 suddenly turned the JCB in a rash and negligent manner and struck the applicant’s right arm. As a result of the impact, the applicant was thrown to the ground and sustained grievous injuries to his right arm, left elbow, and face. The bone of his right arm was fractured, and consequently, the applicant suffered permanent disability. Subsequent to the said accident, F.I.R. was lodged in concerned police station against the Respondent No. 1(driver). 5. Appellant/claimant filed a claim application before the learned Claims Tribunal pleading therein that at the time of accident, deceased was aged about 33 years, employed as Labourer and was earning Rs. 6000 per month. Due to the accident caused by the offending vehicle, claimants/applicants have suffered mental and financial loss as they lost their breadwinner and have claimed compensation amounting to Rs. 12,00,000/- from the non-applicants. 6. Mr. Ashish Pandey, learned counsel for the Appellant/Insurance Company submits that the Appellant/Insurance Company has filed this appeal raising a sole contention that the driver of the offending vehicle did not possess any valid and effective driving license to drive the heavy goods vehicle i.e. JCB on the date of accident i.e. 01.04.2012. Therefore, the Appellant/Insurance Company is not liable to pay any amount of compensation to the Claimants. 4 7. On the other hand, Mr. Savind Kumar, learned counsel for the Claimants submits that the learned Claims Tribunal has not awarded just amount of compensation to the claimants. While computing compensation, learned Claims Tribunal has not considered the provisions and the decisions laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court. 8. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused record of the claim case. 9. So far as the submission of counsel for the Appellant/Insurance Company that the accident was on account of negligence of the offending (driver of JCB) and that, he was not possessing a valid and effective driving license to ply the heavy goods vehicle is concerned, perusal of the impugned award would show that the Non-Applicant/Insurance Company has examined the witness i.e. N.A.W. – 3 namely, Arvind Bhagat, District Transport Officer, Baikunthpur, District – Koriya before the learned Claims Tribunal who has stated in his examination that the driver of the offending vehicle i.e. the Respondent No. 1/Manoj Kumar Chauhan in the claim application did possess a valid and effective driving license to ply the heavy goods vehicle transport (J.C.B.). He submitted that the Respondent No. 1 was issued a license for non-transport vehicle on 09.09.2005 bearing License No. CG 16 2005 0001709 which was valid upto 01.01.2033 and was issued license for plying transport vehicle on 28.02.2007. Since, the date of incident is 01.04.2012 and therefore, the driver of the offending vehicle was possessing a valid and effective driving license. 10.During course of arguments, learned counsel for the Appellant/Insurance Company did not raise any other ground for 5 challenging the impugned award passed by the learned Claims Tribunal against the liability upon the Insurance Company for the compensation to the Respondents/Claimant herein. 11. Considering entirety of facts and circumstances, evidence on record, it is clear that the learned Claims Tribunal rightly came to the conclusion that the driver of the heavy goods vehicle (JCB) i.e. Manoj Kumar Chauhan was possessing valid and effective driving license on the date of incident i.e. 01.04.2012. Therefore, the learned Claims Tribunal did not err in law in fastening liability upon the Appellant/Insurance Company to pay the amount of compensation to the Claimants. Accordingly, the appeal preferred by the Appellant/Insurance company being sans merit is liable to be and accordingly, dismissed. 12. Now, I will consider submission made by the counsel for the appellant in MAC No. 2319/2019 i.e. the claimants seeking enhancement of the amount of compensation. 13. The assessment of income of the deceased is not in dispute, the income of the deceased was Rs. 4498/-. per month. Learned Claims Tribunal considering age of the deceased as 33 years considering the disability suffered by the Claimant to be 19.13% applied a multiplier of 16 for computing the amount of disability. 14. However, considering the injuries suffered by the Claimant and the disability suffered by the Claimant due to the said incident, this Court finds it appropriate to award Rs. 30,000/- towards pains and sufferings. 15. Now, the appellant/claimant will be entitled for the total amount of compensation which is as under:- 6 Rs. 2,97,480/- [1,65,210 (Loss of Income due to permanent disability of 19.13%) + 20,000 (special diet, attendant and conveyance) + 1799 (loss of income during laid down period) + 30,000 (pains and sufferings) + 80471 (medical expenses)} 16. Thus, total amount of compensation comes to Rs. 2,97,480/-. Amount of compensation shall carry interest @ 9% from the date of filing of claim application till its realization. Rest of the conditions mentioned in the impugned award shall remain intact. 17. Any amount already paid to Claimants/Appellants No. 1 to 4 as compensation shall be adjusted from the total amount of compensation as calculated above and the amount of compensation shall be paid within a period 45 days from the date of passing of this order. 18. In the result, the appeal filed by the Appellant/Insurance Company in MAC No. 434/2020 is dismissed and the appeal filed by the Claimants/Appellants in MAC No. 2319/2019 is allowed in part and the impugned award is modified to the extent as mentioned above. Certified copy as per rules. Sd/-- /-/--------/--/- (Sanjay K. Agrawal) Judge Dey SHUBHAM DEY Digitally signed by SHUBHAM DEY