Motor insurance coverage for spare drivers in goods vehicles was excluded under the unamended law, with recovery allowed from the owner.

Under the unamended Section 147 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, compulsory insurance for a goods vehicle did not extend to a spare driver travelling in the cabin unless he was shown to be engaged in driving the offending vehicle. Such a person was treated as a gratuitous passenger for insurer-liability purposes, so the insurer was not the primary obligor to satisfy the award. Consistently with the Act's beneficial object and precedent on recovery, the amount already deposited could be released to the claimant, with the insurer left to recover the sum from the owner.

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Issues: Whether, under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 as it stood before the 1994 amendment, an insurer was liable to indemnify the owner for bodily injury to a person travelling in a goods vehicle as a spare driver, and whether the award could be satisfied by the insurer with liberty to recover the amount from the owner.

Analysis: The governing provision was Section 147 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 in its unamended form. The statutory coverage for employees travelling in a goods carriage was confined to liability for an employee engaged in driving the vehicle, a conductor in a public service vehicle, or a person being carried in a goods carriage in the limited manner contemplated by the proviso. A spare driver employed in another vehicle, though travelling in the cabin, was not shown to be engaged in driving the offending vehicle and therefore did not fall within the compulsory insurance cover. The claimant was accordingly treated as a gratuitous passenger for the purpose of insurer liability. In view of the beneficial object of the Act and the claimant's long delay in receiving compensation, the amount already deposited by the insurer could be released to the claimant, with the insurer given liberty to recover the sum from the owner in the manner recognised by precedent under Section 168 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

Conclusion: The insurer had no liability in law to satisfy the award as primary obligor, but the claimant was permitted to withdraw the deposited amount and the insurer was entitled to recover the same from the owner.

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