Gratuitous passengers in a goods vehicle bar insurer liability where pleadings and record establish the passenger status.

An insurer is not liable to satisfy a motor accident award where the pleadings and contemporaneous record show that occupants of a goods vehicle were gratuitous passengers and not representatives of the owner of the goods. The Court treated admissions in the claim petition and FIR as admissible evidence and found that later contrary assertions were unsupported by the record. It also held that, once sufficient material already establishes gratuitous travel, the insurer need not always lead separate direct evidence to prove breach. On these facts, the occupants could not be treated as covered passengers, and the insurer was not liable to pay compensation.

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Issues: Whether the insurer was liable to satisfy the award when the deceased and other occupants of a goods vehicle were shown, on the pleadings and record, to have been travelling as gratuitous passengers and not as representatives of the owner of the goods.

Analysis: The claim petition and the first information report, which formed part of the pleadings, consistently showed that the deceased and others were members of a marriage party travelling in a goods vehicle. Their later attempt to describe themselves as representatives of the owner of goods was not supported by the record. The Court held that an admission in pleadings is admissible in evidence, and that where sufficient material already exists, the insurer need not produce direct evidence in every case to prove that the occupants were gratuitous passengers. On the facts, all the occupants could not plausibly be treated as representatives of the owner of goods, and the reliance on the insurer's burden of proof was misplaced.

Conclusion: The deceased and other occupants were gratuitous passengers, and the insurer was not liable to pay compensation.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the pleadings and contemporaneous record establish that occupants of a goods vehicle were travelling as gratuitous passengers, the insurer is not liable under Section 147 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 merely because no further direct evidence is led to prove breach.

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