Punjab and Haryana High Court: This appeal was filed before a Single Judge Bench of Lisa Gill, J., by the Insurance Company challenging its liability to pay compensation to the claimants which was awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal.
Facts of the case were that the claim petition was filed under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, by the claimant-respondent and the same was decided by the Tribunal and compensation of Rs 2,89,012 along with interest at the rate of 6% per annum was awarded on account of injuries received by respondent in the motor vehicle accident. Appellant i.e. the insurance company contended that the Tribunal erred in holding that a valid driving license was present with the driver of the offending vehicle. Offending vehicle being a bus. It was further submitted that ‘unladen weight’ and ‘gross vehicle weight’ are distinct from each other. And according to the driving license he was not entitled to drive the bus.
High Court observed that the driving license found with the offending vehicle’s driver was valid for a transport vehicle. The appellant had failed to show that the driving license was valid for driving of Light Motor Vehicle Non-Transport, Transport Vehicle and Light Motor Vehicle CAB. It was also observed that the distinction between the ‘unladen weight’ and the ‘gross vehicle weight’ was irrelevant. Since appellant had failed to show that respondent was carrying an invalid driving license the appeal should be dismissed. Therefore, on finding no ground to interfere in the impugned order, this appeal was dismissed. [United India Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Gurchain Singh, 2018 SCC OnLine P&H 2723, decided on 20-12-2018]
