UNITED INDIA INSURANCE COMPANY Vs. MANJIT KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL the 4 cases are connected and they arise out of the same accident. All the appeals are by the Insurance Company for exoneration of liability as the driver did not have a valid driving licence at the time of accident. The accident took place on 20.03.1992 between a Maruti car and a truck. The Tribunal found that the accident occurred due to the negligence of the truck driver and made liable the respondents to pay compensation.

(2.) THE liability of the Insurance Company to set aside the claim even for violation of terms of policy such as that the driver did not have a valid driving licence is firmly established in law through the decisions of the Supreme Court in New India Assurance Company Versus Kamla - : (2001) 4 SCC 342 and National Insurance Company Limited Versus Swaran Singh : (2004) 3 SCC 279. The exoneration of liability as pleaded by the Insurance Company for the claims arising from the accident is, therefore, untenable. The argument therefor is consequently rejected. The contention has been that the driver did not have a valid driving licence at the time of the accident. At the trial, the driver had examined himself as RW3 and he had brought the original licence to the Tribunal and the copy had been produced and exhibited as RW2/A. The licence showed that he was authorized to drive a heavy goods vehicle. It had been originally issued at the DTO office at Patiala on 07.05.1987 and renewed on 05.12.1994 upto 04.12.1997. All that the Insurance Company did was to summon from the criminal court records a licence that was said to have been seized from the driver and lying in the criminal court file. The copy showed a different licence number 43821/86 that was valid upto 01.12.1992. For whatever reasons if the licence produced before the Tribunal was different, the Insurance Company was bound to bring proof of verification for the licence which was said to have been issued in his favour under licence No. 43826, dated 07.05.1987. The Licensing Clerk RW2 only deposed that there was no issue of licence in the name of the driver Amrik Singh under Licence No. 43821/86. The numbers are different and no specific evidence was brought to contradict a renewal licence bearing licence No. 666, dated 05.12.1994 and valid upto 04.12.1997. The driver had actually produced a verification report from the DTO in rebuttal evidence verifying that the licence number 666/R had been renewed by him and that the old licence number was 43826. The Tribunal had sufficient materials to hold that the driving licence as produced by the driver was genuine or at any rate, the document produced by him was not shown to be a fake. Under the circumstances, I find no error in the awards casting the liability on the insurer. All the appeals are dismissed.