Accident resulting in the death of R1 and R2 – Insured Vehicle involved in the accident – Witnesses’ accounts confirmed involvement – Confirmed by Final Report under S. 173, CrPC – Insurance Company could not disprove:
Held: Per the MACT award, various witnesses had stated that it was the vehicle described in the complaint that was involved in the accident – Final Report under Section 173 of CrPC also stated that the vehicle, as claimed by the complainants, was the one involved in the accident – The onus was on the Insurance Company to get the same disproved by either calling the Investigating Officer as a witness or by any other means, such as appropriate line of crossexamination, etc. to establish a factual position to the contrary – Admittedly, this was not done. [Paras 7, 8, 9] Liability of the Insurance Company – Insurance certificate/policy – Incident occurred on 11.04.2017 at 14:15 hrs – Insurance obtained at 15:54 hrs on 11.04.2017 – Coverage begins from the day of receipt of the Premium: Held: The MACT found that the premium was paid prior to the accident and it was because of the internal procedure that the policy was issued the next day – Court held that coverage under the policy began from the day the premium was received by the Insurance Company in light of the express terms of ‘Certificate of Insurance cum policy Schedule’ that provided ‘Date of commencement of risk: 11/04/2017’ – Since the incident occurred on 11.04.2017, the Court held that the vehicle was insured when the accident took place. [Paras 11, 12]
Insurance Company – Insurance was fraudulently obtained – Alleged fraud not proved by the Insurance Company: Held: Even though fraud vitiates everything, merely alleging fraud does not amount to proving it – The Insurance Company has not discharged its onus to prove the alleged fraud. [Paras 13, 16]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Harshit Anand, Hony. Associate Editor (Verified by: Shadan Farasat, Sr. Adv.) Quoted approvingly in Venture Global Engineering v Satyam Computer Services Limited (2010) 8 SCC 660.. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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