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2001 (3) TMI 1014
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....ll as the driver were made parties, besides impleading the insurer (appellant Insurance Company) in the claims proceedings. It is admitted that the truck was then covered by a valid insurance policy issued by the appellant company. As we are now concerned only with the contentions of the appellant Insurance Company, that too restricted to the question relating to the driving licence held by the 8th respondent, we do not think it worth referring to the details of other pleadings set out by the claimants and the contending resistors. The appellant Insurance Company, in the written statement filed before the Claims Tribunal, pleaded inter alia that the driver of the vehicle did not have a valid driving licence and hence there was breach of the policy condition and the corollary is that the Insurance Company cannot be fastened with the liability to pay compensation to any one in respect of the accident referred to in the claim petitions. The insured owner of the vehicle as well as the driver 8th respondent relied on a document purporting to be a driving licence issued by the licensing authority (SDM, Paonta, Sirmaur District in Himachal Pradesh) bearing No.1874-P/90. The document fu....
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....about the genuineness of the earlier licence. Therefore, I am of the view that the statement of Shri Anil Chawla (RW-4) is not sufficient to prove that the earlier licence of the truck driver which was renewed by SDM, Rohru was a fake licence. As such, I hold that the New India Assurance Company has failed to prove that truck driver did not have valid driving licence on the date of accident. When the matter was taken up before the High Court the counsel for the insurance company contended that if the original licence was shown to be a forged document no authority has the power to validate it and even if any validation was made on account of a mistaken impression about the genuineness of the document it would not gain any legitimacy. The counsel in the High Court relied on the decision of a Full Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in National Insurance Co. Ltd. vs. Santro Devi and ors. {1997(1) ACJ 111} which held that a forged driving licence though may be validly renewed, would not become a valid driving licence or a duly issued driving licence in accordance with the Motor Vehicles Act. In spite of the said decision the Division Bench of the High Court did not accept the c....
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.... the Full Bench in National Insurance Co. Ltd. vs. Santro Devi were obiter dicta because the facts in that case did not warrant any such observation. As a point of law we have no manner of doubt that a fake licence cannot get its forgery outfit stripped off merely on account of some officer renewing the same with or without knowing it to be forged. Section 15 of the Act only empowers any licensing authority to renew a driving licence issued under the provisions of this Act with effect from the date of its expiry. No licensing authority has the power to renew a fake licence and, therefore, a renewal if at all made cannot transform a fake licence as genuine. Any counterfeit document showing that it contains a purported order of a statutory authority would ever remain counterfeit albeit the fact that other persons including some statutory authorities would have acted on the document unwittingly on the assumption that it is genuine. The observation of the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in National Insurance Co. Ltd. vs. Sucha Singh (supra) that renewal of a document which purports to be a driving licence, will robe even a forged document with validity on account ....
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....ficate of insurance is issued by the insurer in the prescribed form in favour of the insured. It is in Section 149 that provisions, relating to the duty of the insurer for satisfying the judgments and awards in respect of third party claims, are incorporated. Sub-section (1) says that the insurer shall pay to the person entitled to the benefit of a judgment or award as if the insurer were the judgment debtor in respect of the liability, when any such judgment or award is obtained against the insured in whose favour a certificate of insurance has been issued. Of course, the said liability of the insurer is subject to the maximum sum assured payable under the policy. Section 149(2) of the Act says that notice regarding the suit or other legal proceedings shall be given to the insurer if such insurer is to be fastened with such liability. The purpose of giving such notice is to afford the insurer to be made a party in the proceedings for defending the action on any one of the grounds mentioned in the sub-section. Among the multiplicity of such grounds the one which is relevant in this case is extracted below: (a) Th....
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....ird parties, whether or not there has been any breach or violation of the policy conditions. But the amount so paid by the insurer to third parties can be allowed to be recovered from the insured if as per the policy conditions the insurer had no liability to pay such sum to the insured. It is advantageous to refer to a two-Judge Bench of this Court in Skandia Insurance Co. Ltd. vs. Kokilaben Chandravadan and ors. {1987 (2) SCC 654}. Though the said decision related to the corresponding provisions of the predecessor Act (Motor Vehicles Act, 1939) the observations made in the judgment are quite germane now as the corresponding provisions are materially the same as in the Act. Learned Judges pointed out that the insistence of the legislature that a motor vehicle can be used in a public place only if that vehicle is covered by a policy of insurance is not for the purpose of promoting the business of the Insurance Company but to protect the members of the community who become sufferers on account of accidents arising from use of motor vehicles. It is pointed out in the decision that such protection would have remained only a paper protection if the compensation awarded by the courts w....