KIRAN BANERJEE Vs. NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants impugn the right of recovery granted against them apropos the award of compensation to be paid by the insurance company. The ground of challenge is that the appellants had informed the insurer that the person, in whose name the insurance policy was issued i.e. the registered owner of the offending vehicle, had passed away on 24.05.2012. However, nothing was brought on record by the appellants to substantiate the aforesaid contention. Indeed, the insurer has denied that any such information was given to it.

(2.) It was the case of the insurer that it came to know about the factum of demise of the registered owner of the vehicle, only in the year 2016, when an e-mail was received by it from its legal office. It is another matter though that a copy of that e-mail was never produced.

(3.) Be that as it may, one person died in an accident on 19.10.2014 involving the insured vehicle. The policy in question was renewed from 11.04.2014 to 10.04.2015 and the third party liability has been fastened upon the insurer on the basis of the said document, primarily with the objective that an unsuspecting third party should not be remediless in circumstances of such a nature as the present case, especially in the context of the socially beneficial legislation from which these proceedings ensue.