Court dismisses plea seeking claim for death in road accident after noting false implication of wrong bus

New Delhi [India], June 3 : Delhi's Saket Court has recently dismissed a petition seeking claim for death in a road accident after noting that the bus implicated in the case was not involved in the accident. The bus owner (school) faced the proceedings as the petitioner had implicated the bus in her petition.
Delhi police had filed a closure report giving clean chit to the bus owner as the bus was not involved in the accident.
MACT Judge Sudesh Kumar after considering the facts and submissions, objections of counsel for the bus owner dismissed the petition.
The court observed, "Perusal of cancelled DAR shows that nowhere the bus no. DL-1PB-7648 is mentioned. Learned counsel for the petitioner also failed to tell from where the bus no. DL-1PB-7648 which belongs to the respondent (White Lea School) has come."
"Even after knowing the fact that the wrong bus number has been mentioned in the petition, still learned counsel for the petitioners continued to proceed with the matter and dragged the respondents intentionally for two years," the judge remarked.
Therefore, in view of the above submissions, this petition is rejected, the court said in the order of May 24.
"Though it is a fit case for imposing costs wherein the respondent (School) was harassed for about two years despite objections being raised. However, it seems that it is a mistake on the part of counsel for the petitioners," the judge added.
The judge said, "I do not want to burden the petitioners with costs who are already facing hardships due to the death of their son."
The court considered the cancellation DAR filed by the IO on 09.11.2020. Before that the petitioners have filed a present petition in this case imposing the vehicle no. DL-1PB-7648 as the offending vehicle.
However, in the cancellation DAR filed by the IO ASI Billu, mentioned that as per the CCTV footage installed in a nearby police booth, the deceased Sandeep Kumar was riding on his motorcycle and was overtaking the moving bus having bus no. DL-1PB-7868 from the left side and while doing so in order to save the pedestrian from colliding with his motor vehicle got dis-balanced and he fell down along with his motorcycle and sustained fatal injuries, the court noted.
Advocate Atul Jain, counsel for the respondent (school), argued that bus bearing no. DL-1PB-7648 which was owned by the respondent was not even remotely connected with the alleged accident.
The respondent is a private school situated on Narela Road, Bawana. Bus no. DL-1PB-7648 was used to ferry the students/ employees of the school within a radius of 10-15 KM approximately, the counsel argued.
The distance between the respondent's school and the place where the alleged accident took place is around 50 KM and even otherwise did not use to go there, he further argued.
Even in the DAR the IO has stated that the number of the offending vehicle involved in the matter was DL-1PB-7868, the counsel stated.
"However, despite that the petitioner continued with the present petition only to harass the respondent school. Therefore, the petition may be rejected with exemplary costs," the counsel argued.
On the other hand, the counsel for the petitioner stated that she is ready to withdraw her petition but the case be treated as untraced and the matter is referred to DLSA for compensation.
This incident pertains to a road accident on November 15, 2019, in the area of police station Ambedkar Nagar in South Delhi.