UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO. LTD. Vs. BISHANI DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act has been filed by the Insurance Company and is directed against the award of the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal-I, Kangra at Dharamshala, H.P., in MAC Petition No.3- K/II/2000 decided on 17.5.2003 whereby the Insurance Company has been held liable to pay the amount of compensation.

(2.) THE facts relevant for decision of the case are that the claimant Bishani Devi who died in a motor vehicle accident involving Mini-truck No.HP-11-0012 owned and driven by Rajinder Kumar. The said vehicle was stated to be insured with the appellant Insurance Company. The Insurance Company in its reply took up various pleas. Initially the Insurance Company was not impleaded as a party. During the course of proceedings the driver-cum-owner stated that the vehicle was insured with the United India Insurance Company and thereafter the same was ordered to be impleaded. The counsel for the owner-cum-driver on 1.1.2003 tendered in evidence a photo copy of the alleged cover note of the vehicle in question. This was stated to have been issued by the United India Insurance Company and was purportedly valid from 26.12.1998 to 25.12.1999. The insurance company in fact did not seriously contest the assertion that the vehicle was insured with it before the Tribunal and the Tribunal held the Insurance Company liable to satisfy the award.

(3.) DURING the pendency of the appeal the Insurance Company filed CMP No.714 of 2004. Alongwith this application it filed a certified copy of the award of the same Motor Accident Claims Tribunal in which with regard to the policy of Insurance the following observations were made: