Skip to main content

Even A Stationary Vehicle Can Cause Accident

In Kalim Khan vs Fimidabee & Others, a person had died when a piece of rock fell on him from an adjacent field where blasting operations for the digging of a well had been going on. The blasting machine was powered using the battery of a tractor. The issue before the Court was whether the accident caused by blasting operations powered by the battery of an immobile tractor could be termed as “arising out of use of vehicle” within the phraseology of Section 165 of MV Act.

The Tribunal held that accident had a causal connection with the use of the vehicle. The Tribunal also found that use of the tractor for blasting operations to dig a well in an agricultural field was incidental to agricultural operations, and hence not a commercial activity. In an appeal by the insurer, the High Court reversed the findings. The High Court found that the batteries were detached from the vehicle, and hence it could not be said that the accident had any causal link with use of a vehicle. The High Court also opined that the use was commercial in nature.

The Supreme Court on appeal referred to Shivaji Dayanu Patil and another v .Smt. Vatschala Uttam More .,Samir Chanda v. Managing Director, Assam State Transport Corporation & Union of India v. Bhagwati Prasad (Dead) and others and found that in each case the court wanted to see whether there has been some causal relation or the event is related to the act. It held that there was some causal link between the falling of rock piece and use of vehicle, which was sufficient to attract jurisdiction under MV Act.

The battery was installed in the tractor and the explosives were charged by the battery. The purpose was to dig the well in the field. In such an obtaining factual matrix, it would be an erroneous perception to say that the vehicle was not in use as stipulated under Section 165 of the Act, the Court held on facts.

Comments

Post a Comment

Most viewed this month

Appellate authorities under Special Statutes cannot be asked to condone delay

Madras High Court in R.Gowrishankar vs. The Commissioner of Service Tax has held that Appellate authorities cannot be asked to condone the delay, beyond the extended period of limitation A Division Bench comprising of Justices S. Manikumar and D. Krishnakumar, made this observation while considering an appeal filed against Single Bench order declining to set aside the order made in the condone delay petition filed by the petitioner to condone 223 days in filing the appeal before the Commissioner of Service Tax (Appeals). Article referred: http://www.livelaw.in/appellate-authorities-special-statutes-cannot-asked-condone-delay-beyond-extended-period-limitation-madras-hc/
Post a Comment
Read more

'Seize assets to pay damages to accident victim'

Her story might be an inspiration for the physically challenged but justice has remained elusive for her. In 2008, a bus accident left research engineer S Thenmozhi, 30, paraplegic. In April 2013, the motor accident claims tribunal directed the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) to provide her a compensation of 57.9 lakh. However, TNSTC refused to budge and on Tuesday a city court ordered attaching of movable assets of the transport corporation. Thenmozhi was employed in C-DOT, a telecom technology development centre in Bangalore. On July 21, 2008, she was coming to Chennai in a private bus. Around 2am, the bus had a flat tyre and the driver parked it on the left side of the road near Pallikonda in Vellore district on the Bangalore-Chennai highway. While the tyre was being changed, a TNSTC bus of Dharmapuri division hit the stationary bus. The rear part of the bus was smashed and passengers were injured. Thenmozhi who had a seat at the back of the bus suffered...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mumbai ITAT rules income of offshore discretionary trust is subject to tax in India

The Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has recently determined the following issue in the affirmative in the case of Manoj Dhupelia: Should the income of an offshore discretionary trust be subject to tax in India, if no distributions have been made to beneficiaries in India? The question arose from appeals filed by individual beneficiaries in relation to a Lichtenstein-based trust, the Ambrunova Trust and Merlyn Management SA (the Trust) with the ITAT. It is important to note that the individuals in this case were amongst those first identified by the Government of India (GOI) as holding undeclared bank accounts in Lichtenstein. The ITAT ruling raises the following issues: Taxation of Trust Corpus: ITAT classified the corpus of the trust as "undisclosed income" and declared it taxable in the hands of the beneficiaries. Taxation of Undistributed Income: ITAT refused to draw a distinction between the corpus and undistributed income from the trust and declared i...
Post a Comment
Read more