NATIONAL INSURANCE CO. LTD. Vs. RAMESH & ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The instant appeal is directed against the judgment cum award dated 30.9.2010 passed by the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Banswara in M.A.C. No. 338/2007 whereby the Tribunal partly accepted the claim application and awarded compensation to the tune of 87,550 to the respondent No. 1 Ramesh the injured claimant and held the appellant Insurance Company, Rahul Soni the owner and Ramesh Kumar the driver of the offending vehicle jointly and severally responsible to satisfy the award. The award has already been disbursed to the claimant.

(2.) The appellant Insurance Company has approached this Court challenging the finding recorded by the Tribunal whereby it was held jointly and severally to satisfy the award alongwith the owner and driver of the offending vehicle. The challenge to the said finding is based on the assertion that the vehicle in question was being plied in breach of the policy conditions and thus, the appellant was wrongly held responsible to satisfy the award.

(3.) Shri Rajesh Choudhary learned Counsel for the appellant submitted that the vehicle in question was being plied in breach of the policy conditions because the driver Ramesh was having a licence Ex.A-1 which authorised him to drive only a light motor vehicle and a motorcycle. The vehicle in question was a transport vehicle i.e. a jeep and therefore, the appellant is entitled to be exonerated from the liability to satisfy the award. He relied on the decision rendered by this Court in the case of Ram Kumar v. Mangal Chand and Ors. reported in 2014(1) RLW 462 (Raj.) in support of his contention and prayed that while allowing the appeal, the appellant Insurance Company be permitted to recover the decretal amount from the registered owner of the vehicle involved in the accident because the decree has already been satisfied.