Motor Vehicles Act, 1988:
s. 149(2)(a)(ii) – Motor vehicle accident – Liability of the insurance company – Onus to prove that offending vehicle was driven by unauthorized person – On whom – On facts, offending truck driven rashly and negligently, resulting in death of victim – Courts below absolved the Insurance company from its liability in respect of truck since the same was not driven by a person having a valid licence – On appeal, held: Insurance Company is entitled to take a defence that the offending vehicle was driven by an unauthorised person or the person driving the vehicle did not have a valid driving licence – Onus would shift on the Insurance Company only after the owner of the offending vehicle pleads and proves the basic facts within his knowledge that the driver of the offending vehicle was authorised by him to drive the vehicle and had a valid driving licence at the relevant time – On facts, owner of the offending vehicle did not produce any evidence except a driving licence of one driver, without any specific stand taken in the pleadings or in the evidence that the same driver was, in fact, authorised to drive the vehicle in question at the relevant time – Insurance Company plainly refuted the plea and also asserted that the offending vehicle was not driven by an authorised person having valid driving licence – Merely producing a valid insurance certificate in respect of the offending truck was not enough for the owner to make the Insurance Company liable to discharge his liability arising from rash and negligent driving by the driver of his vehicle – Thus, tribunal rightly absolved the Insurance Company from any liability for just reasons as affirmed by High Court.
Motor vehicle accident – Liability of the insurance company, when absolved – Owner of the vehicle produced the insurance certificate indicating that vehicle was comprehensively insured by the Insurance Company for unlimited liability – Held: Even if the insurer succeeds in establishing its defence, the tribunal or the Court can direct the insurance company to pay the award amount to the claimant and, in turn, recover the same from the owner of the vehicle – To sub serve the ends of justice, the insurer to pay the claim amount awarded by tribunal as confirmed by the High Court to the claimants in the first instance, with liberty to recover the same from the owner of the vehicle in accordance with law.
National Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Swarn Singh and Ors. [2004] 1 SCR 180 : (2004) 3 SCC 297 – relied on.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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