Branch Manager, National Insurance Co. Ltd vs Shanti Devi And Ors

Heard, learned counsel for the appellant.

Appellant- National Insurance Co. Ltd. has preferred this appeal against the award dated 03.01.2018 passed by the learned District Judge-II-cum-

M.A.C.T., Giridih in Title (M.V.) Suit No.29 of 2008.

It appears that there is delay of 324 days in preferring the appeal, for condonation of same I.A. No.2292 of 2019 has been preferred.

Learned counsel for the appellant has assailed the impugned award on the ground that the owner of the offending vehicle bearing registration No.JH-

02H-5348 has not produced the document showing that owner and driver have not violated the terms and conditions of the policy of the Insurance, as

such, while deciding the issue no.(iv) at para 12 of the impugned award, the learned Tribunal instead of deciding the violation of terms and conditions

of the Insurance Policy on the part of the owner has held that if there shall be any violation of statutory terms and conditions of the Insurance Policy,

then sum paid by the insurer shall be recoverable from the owner of the offending vehicle.

Learned counsel for the appellant has further submitted that the impugned award is also bad on 2nd ground that the rate of interest has been awarded

@ 9% per annum which shall be calculated after expiry of 60 days of the order, as such, this Court may interfere with the impugned award by issuing

notice to the claimant as well as respondent-owner and driver of the offending vehicle.

Heard, learned counsel for the appellant and perused the impugned award. It appears that owner and driver of the vehicle have been impleaded as

defendant nos. 1 and 2 in the court below and they have appeared before the court below after notice and have filed joint written statement stating

therein that there is no fault on the part of the owner and driver of the offending vehicle. They have also stated that there are valid vehicular

documents including effective driving licence, Insurance Policy of the vehicle which was insured before the O.P. No.3- National Insurance Co. Ltd.

O.P. No.2- driver had valid driving licnece issued from the District Transport Officer, Giridih, as such, these defendants (owner and driver) are not

liable to pay any compensation to the claimant.

It appears that though the Insurance Company has pleaded in their written statement that owner of the vehicle should be directed to produce all the

valid vehicular documents including valid and effective driving licence of the driver but have not led any evidence to that effect. On the contrary

defendant nos. 1 and 2 (owner and driver) have filed joint written statement stating that they have all the valid vehicular documents including effective

driving licence, as such, the learned Tribunal has rightly passed the order in para 12 of the impugned award that there is nothing on record to show that

there was any violation of the terms and conditions of the Insurance Policy on the part of the owner as envisaged under Section 149(2) of the Motor

Vehicles Act and if there will be any violation of statutory terms and conditions of the Insurance Policy then the sum paid by the Insurance Company

shall be recoverable from the owner of the vehicle, as such, first point taken by the learned counsel for the appellant is of no help for the appellant and

accordingly, the same is rejected.

So far the interest @ 9% to be calculated after expiry of 60 days is concerned, this Court has found that in view of Section 171 of the MV Act, the

learned Tribunal has rightly passed an order of 9% after expiry of 60 days from the date of award i.e. 03.01.2018 though the claim application was

filed in the year, 2008 though the same has not followed the ratio laid by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Dharmpal and Sons Vs. UP State

Road Transport Corporation, 2008 (4) JCR 79 SC, wherein the Hon'ble Apex Court has held that interest ought to have been @7.5% per annum or

prevalent rate of bank interest on the date of award. In the present case instead of awarding the same from the date of filing of the claim application,

the learned Tribunal has awarded 9% after expiry of 60 days from the date of award i.e. 03.01.2018 though the claim application was filed in the year,

2008. In that view of the matter, if the interest is changed from the year, 2018 to 2008 with interest @ 7.5% per annum in view of the judgment

passed by the Dharmpal and Sons (Supra), the interest would have been more than what the learned Tribunal has awarded interest @ 9% after expiry

of 60 days. Since the claimants have not preferred any appeal, as such, this Court is not interfering with the same.

Accordingly, the instant appeal is hereby dismissed.

The Registrar General of this Court is directed to refund the statutory amount deposited by the appellant at the time of filing of Miscellaneous Appeal,

within a period of four weeks from the date of the filling of the requisition/application for the same by the counsel for the appellant.

Since the instant appeal has already been decided on merit, as such, no order is required to be passed in Interlocutory Application.

Accordingly, I.A. No. 2292 of 2019 is hereby closed.