HC upholds tribunal order of making tractor

The Punjab and Haryana high court has dismissed an appeal in which the owner and driver of a tractor trolley had challenged the motor accidents claims tribunal, Ambala, order of making the two liable for paying a compensation of Rs 5.81 lakh to the family of a person who had died in a road accident.

The tractor had met with an accident in which the person had been killed near Ambala in 2011. The family of the deceased had approached the tribunal for compensation, which was awarded in 2012, but the liability to pay the compensation was fixed by the tribunal on the owner and driver. The two had then approached the high court.

The order came on the appeal of Amarjit Singh and driver Ram Kumar who had challenged the tribunal order saying the wooden logs being carried in the tractor-trolley was a farm produce and it could not be called a commercial purpose.

The insurance firm had contended that the vehicle insured for agricultural purposes was being used for commercial purposes as the goods being carried in the tractor-trolley were not owned by the owner.

The high court ruled that the tractor was not being used by the owner for private use. The wooden logs being taken to the market for sale belonged to someone else. "Since the tractor insured for agricultural purposes was being used for commercial ones, the liability was rightly placed upon the owner/driver for payment of the compensation," the high court said while dismissing the appeal.