ORIENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED Vs. NARGIS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Admit.

(2.) Issue notice to the respondents.

(3.) This appeal has been filed by Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. under section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (in short referred to as 'the Act'). It has been held in a series of decisions by the Apex Court and this court, e.g., in National Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Nicolletta Rohtagi, 2002 ACJ 1950 (SC), that unless the conditions precedent specified in section 170 are satisfied an insurance company has no right of appeal unless it is on the ground mentioned in section 149 (2). Section 170 of the aforesaid Act states that the insurance company can be impleaded provided the Tribunal for the reasons to be recorded in writing, is satisfied that there is collusion between the claimant and the opposite party or that the opposite party has failed to contest the claim. Thus, from a perusal of the aforesaid section it is obvious that the Tribunal before impleading the insurance company has to record its reasons in writing about satisfaction of conditions mentioned in clause (a) or (b) of section 170.