ORIENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED BY ITS REGIONAL OFFICE REPRESENTED BY ITS DEPUTY MANAGER Vs. SRI. K.V. CHANDRASHEKAR REDDY S/O SRI. CHIKKAVENKATAPPA AND SRI IMTIYAZ BASHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THOUGH this appeal has been listed for orders regarding acceptance of service of notice on respondent No. 2 - the owner of the offending vehicle, taken out by way of paper publication, having regard to short ground urged in this appeal, by the consent of the learned Counsel for the appellant as well as the respondents -claimants, the matter was heard on merits.

(2.) IN this appeal by the insurer, questioning the legality and correctness of the judgment and award dated 28.6.2005 passed by the MACT, Bangalore (SCCH -7) in MVC. No. 3424/2006, the appellant has urged two grounds viz., (1) as on the date of the accident, the registration of the offending vehicle was not in force and therefore, the life time policy issued till the cancellation of the registration had automatically come to an end and therefore as on the date of the accident there was no valid policy in force as such the Tribunal is in error in foisting the liability to satisfy the award on the insurer of the offending vehicle and secondly the compensation awarded to the claimant towards loss of earning for a period of 500 days is without any basis, as such it is liable to be set aside.

(3.) IT is the contention of the appellant - Insurance Company that the registration of a vehicle is valid only for a period of 15 years and thereafter the registration has to be renewed from time to time and in the case on hand, the vehicle was registered initially on 26.4.1978 as such its registration came to an end on 25.4.1993 and the insured has not produced any document to show that subsequently the registration has been renewed, as such, on 15.12.1994 when the policy was issued there was no valid registration, therefore, the policy issued was void ab initio. However, the Tribunal dealing with this contention has noticed that the insurer has not produced any document to show that registration of the vehicle has been cancelled as on the date of the accident and as a result the policy has come to an end.