The Bench of Justice Javaid Iqbal Wani while deciding a bunch of appeals against respective awards of the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act of 1988’) settled various common grounds agitated by the Appellants in all the Appeals. 

In the case where the Insurance Company had challenged the award passed by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal against it, on the ground that the Tribunal failed to address to the issue of overloading of the offending vehicleat the time of the accident and that the vehicle was being driven by the driver without a valid driving license, as such, there was breach of the terms and conditions of the insurance policy not making the insurance company liable to indemnify the insured/the owner, the Court, upon perusal of the record, observed that none of these grounds sought to be taken as defenses were proved by the insurance company before the Tribunal as such deserve outright rejection.

The Court, relied upon the judgment of the Apex Court in “Lakhmi Chand Vs Reliance General Insurance [(2016)3 SCC 100]”, wherein it was held, “It becomes very clear from a perusal of the aforementioned case law of this Court that the insurance company, in order to avoid liability must not only establish the defence claimed in the proceeding concerned, but also establish breach on the part of the owner/insured of the vehicle for which the burden of proof would rest with the insurance company.”

Further, the Court, relying upon “Jagdish Prasad Pandey Vs Darshan Singh and another [(2002) 9 SCC 527]” held that having regard to the provisions of Section 170 of the Act of 1988, the ground taken by the insurance company that the compensation awarded is on the higher side cannot be entertained without there being any evidence. 

The Court, emphasizing the beneficial nature of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, noted that the proceedings under the Act have to be summary in nature, without a strict proof of evidence being required, and observed that as far as the ground of driver of the vehicle not being possessed of a valid and effective driving license on the date of accident is concerned, “when an owner is hiring a driver he will have to check whether the driver has a driving licence and if the driver produces a driving licence which on the face of it looks genuine, the owner is not expected to find out whether the licencehas in fact been issued by a competent authority or not and the owner would then take the test of the driver and that if the owner finds that the driver is competent to drive the vehicle, then hires the driver and where the owner has been satisfied that the driver has a licence and is driving competently there would be no breach of Section 149(2)(1a)(ii) and the Insurance Company would not be absolved of the liability.”[“Rishi Pal Singh Vs New India Assurance Co. Ltd.” (Civil Appeal No. 4919 of 2022)]”