Recently the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the
matter of Smt. Suvarnamma & Anr. Vs United India
Insurance Company Ltd. & Anr. reported in 2018 (5)
SCALE 516 has held that "a mere statement that the
victim was unlawfully travelling on the tractor, without
any probable evidence cannot be taken into
consideration, when the evidence to the contrary is
available, in the form of deposition of an independent
eyewitness".
9. As far as evidence is concerned, there is admission in
the FIR (Ex.P/1) itself that deceased Hemant was sitting on
the tractor. This FIR was lodged on the basis of the
statement given by Vinod, Ballu, Hanuman Danda.
Therefore, judgment cited by the learned counsel for the
appellants in the case of Suvarnamma (Smt.) (supra),
Surjan Singh (supra) and Smt. Kamli (supra) are
distinguishable on their own facts.
The Hon'ble Apex Court in the judgment reported in AIR
2018 SC 2057 in the case of Smt. Suvarnamma and
another Vs. United India Insurance Co.Ltd., has
categorically held that - mere statement that victim was
unlawfully traveling in the tractor without any evidence
cannot be taken into consideration.
Learned advocate for the appellants in support of
his contention cited some decisions of Appex Court
passed in Smt. Suvarnamma & Anr. Vs. United
India Insurance Company Ltd. & Anr. wherein the
Hon'ble Supreme Court is of view that the deposition of
Divisional Manager of the Insurance Company
regarding the cause of accident being the victim was
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passenger of the Tractor cannot necessary to be proved
by wiping out all the evidences on record on behalf of
the claimants.