National Insurance Co. Ltd. vs Abha Gupta and Others

Dhrub Narayan Upadhyay, J.—This appeal has been preferred by National Insurance Co. Ltd. against the judgment and award dated 14.02.2008 passed by learned District Judge 1st-cum-Motor Vehicle Claim Tribunal, Deoghar in connection with Motor Vehicle Claim Case No. 27 of 2004. The facts, in brief, are that deceased 2015 (XI) AIR Jhar R/31 Arvind Kumar Gupta, on 08.06.2004 in course of travelling in tempo bearing registration No. JH15B-0323 met with an accident due to rash and negligent driving of driver of the tempo and died at the spot due to injury caused.

The appellant has assailed the impugned judgment on the ground that the offending vehicle was not registered according to Section 39 of the M.V. Act and no valid permit was issued in favour of said tempo as required under Section 66 of the M.V. Act. Since owner of the tempo has violated the terms and conditions of the policy, the insurance company could not be directed to indemnify the liability of the insured.

Learned counsel appearing for the claimants-respondents has submitted that death of Arvind Kumar Gupta had occurred due to plying of motor vehicle on a public place and therefore, the dependents are liable to receive compensation. If there is any violations of terms and conditions between the insurer and the insured, appropriate order may be passed in that regard but the claimants should not be debarred from getting compensation in lieu of death of Arvind Kumar Gupta.

Respondent No. 7 who happens to be owner of the vehicle did not appear even after valid service of notice which is apparent from the order dated 06.10.2009.

I have gone through the impugned judgment from which it appears that the learned Tribunal has held that the vehicle was registered, only the certificate was signed on the next date. The registration number was allotted on the date of accident itself. The appellant has also raised the question of road permit, but I do not find any discussion in the impugned judgment regarding road permit. It is also not evident that appellant has led any evidence in this regard to substantiate the pleadings. Since owner of the vehicle has not appeared to challenge the allegations levelled by the appellant-insurance company, I am left with no option but to observe, if the terms of policy has been violated then owner of the vehicle shall be saddled with the cost. In the result, the insurance company is directed to satisfy the compensation amount as awarded by the Tribunal and pay the compensation amount to the claimants within 60 days from the date of this order. Authority is given to the appellant-insurance company to recover the compensation amount paid to the claimants from the owner of the vehicle i.e. respondent No. 7 in accordance with law as indicated in the judgment reported in Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Shri Nanjappan and Others, . The appellant-insurance company is authorised to receive the statutory amount of Rs. 25,000/- deposited at the time of presenting the appeal subject to the condition of payment of total compensation amount to the claimants which could be verified from certified copy of the order passed by the Tribunal. With this observation, this appeal stands disposed of.