NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO LTD Vs. MAHA SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In both the appeals, the plea by Insurance Company is for exclusion of the liability on the ground that the original issue of license was not genuine although the subsequent renewal was purported to have been done elsewhere which had been proved to be properly done. The Insurance Company relied on investigation report to contend that the original licence have not been issued by the licensing authority i.e. R.T.O Dehradun. The Tribunal relied on the Division Bench decision in National Insurance Company v. Sucha Singh, 1994 106 PunLR 140 hold that even if original issue of license has not been regular the subsequent would establish the validity of the license. In the appeal challenging the liability the learned counsel would state that the law has since changed with authoritative pronouncement of the Supreme Court in National Insurance Company v. Swaran Singh, 2004 136 PunLR 510 that even if renewal is genuine, if the original issue was shown to be false, the subsequent renewal must also be taken as not valid. The fundamental position still remains that the burden of proof of violation of terms of policy, namely, the invalidity of the license was still on the Insurance Company and the Insurance Company cannot be heard to contend for such a position, unless it had summoned the original record from the R.T.O Dehradun and elicited details with reference to the copy of license produced before the Tribunal that there had no such issue as the copy bore out. Mere Investigator's report shall not suffice and it cannot be taken us discharging liability which law casts on the insurance Company.

(2.) The liability fastened on the Insurance Company, therefore, was justified and there is no scope for interference in the awards passed by the Tribunal.