NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO.LTD Vs. PARAMJ1T KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN the present appeal preferred by the Insurance Company plea is for exclusion of liability on the ground that the deceased was a gratuitous passenger in a truck and there was no risk coverage to sustain the claim against the Insurance Company

(2.) THE Tribunal, however, made the Insurance Company liable on the basis of the evidence given by the cleaner employed in the same truck who gave evidence to the effect that the deceased was an additional driver and he had been employed as driver in the very same company for at least four years prior to the accident. The owner -insured also stated in his written statement that the deceased was a driver employed in the company. The averment in the petition was simply that he was driver employed with the owner but there was no specific statement in the claim petition that he was second driver at that relevant time.

(3.) I have gone through the evidence of cleaner of the vehicle at the relevant time. His statement in - chief reads as under : -