Cuttack: Observing that a state can be treated as the “owner” of a privately owned vehicle, hired for public duty, for the purpose of liability under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, Orissa high court has upheld a compensation award of Rs 31.92 lakh granted to the family members of a truck owner who died in a road accident during relief operations following Cyclone Titli.While dismissing an appeal filed by the Odisha govt on March 6, a single-judge bench of Justice Gourishankar Satapathy issued a direction for the disbursal of the compensation to the four claimants within eight weeks.The state had challenged a March 24, 2023, order of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Gajapati, which directed it to pay the compensation to the four legal heirs of the deceased. The accident occurred on National Highway-326A in 2018 when the truck, in which the owner was travelling, was transporting relief blankets for the cyclone-affected people.In its appeal, the state argued that the truck belonged to the deceased himself and was insured with a private insurance company, and therefore the govt could not be held liable as the owner of the vehicle.The high court, however, noted that the truck had been hired by the district administration and was under the govt’s possession and operational control at the time of the accident.“The undisputed fact is that the truck in question was under the rent of the district administration at the relevant time of accident for performing relief work and, thereby, the truck can be well considered to be under the requisition of the State of Odisha to perform public duty,” Justice Satapathy observed.The judge said the key issue was not the registered ownership of the vehicle but who exercised effective control over it when the accident occurred.“It can never be disputed that the State of Odisha was in active control and possession of the truck at the relevant time of accident and, therefore, following the definition of the owner as provided in Section 2(30) of the Act, the State of Odisha being in active possession of the truck under a contract of rent is considered to be the owner … at the relevant time. But the deceased cannot be considered as an owner at the relevant time having parted with the control and possession of the truck to the State of Odisha,” Justice Satapathy said.
