Gujarat High Court
Oriental Insurance Company Ltd vs Bhanuben Rajubhai Loriya on 2 January, 2025
NEUTRAL CITATION
C/FA/1494/2015 ORDER DATED: 02/01/2025
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/FIRST APPEAL NO. 1494 of 2015
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ORIENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY LTD
Versus
BHANUBEN RAJUBHAI LORIYA & ORS.
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Appearance:
MS KARUNA V RAHEVAR(3818) for the Appellant(s) No. 1
MR ADIL R MIRZA(2488) for the Defendant(s) No. 8
MR KASHYAP R JOSHI(2133) for the Defendant(s) No. 1,2,3,4,5,6
RULE SERVED for the Defendant(s) No. 7
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CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE J. C. DOSHI
Date : 02/01/2025
ORAL ORDER
1. The present First Appeal, under Section 173 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, is preferred by the appellant - Insurance Company being aggrieved and dissatisfied with the judgment and award dated 23.03.2015 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Valsad in Motor Accident Claim Petition No.89 of 2008, whereby, learned Tribunal has held appellant - Insurance Company liable to pay compensation.
2. Heard learned advocates for the parties.
3. Learned advocate Ms.Rahevar for the appellant - Insurance Company raised solitary contention that learned Tribunal has wrongly assessed issue of license. It is submitted that accident took place on 02.05.2008 and license to drive heavy goods vehicle was renewed from 06.05.2008. It is submitted that in Page 1 of 4 Uploaded by SATISH C. VEMULLA(HC00206) on Sat Jan 04 2025 Downloaded on : Mon Jan 06 21:55:37 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/FA/1494/2015 ORDER DATED: 02/01/2025 undefined view of Exh.35, it could be presumed that on the date of accident, driver of vehicle was not holding license to drive heavy goods vehicle, yet learned Tribunal did not notice this issue and fasten liability upon insurance company to pay compensation. This is main argument on the part of insurance company to challenge impugned judgment and award.
4. Learned Tribunal has addressed this issue in para 10 of the impugned judgment. It is in Gujarati, for better understanding, it is translated in English as under :-
"10. Issue No. 4:-
In this case, application for compensation, no dispute has been raised by the respondents regarding the occurrence of the accident. In the present application, no clear documentary or oral evidence has been produced showing that respondent No. 1 did not hold a driving license on the date of the accident and the insurance license of respondent No. 3 was cancelled or suspended by R.T.O. Considering the certificate at Exhibit-35, it is stated that respondent No. 1 driver was licensed to drive heavy goods vehicles and heavy passenger vehicles from 23/01/02 and the last renewal date was from 06/05/08 to 05/05/11. Under the circumstances, I believe that the submission advanced on behalf of the Insurance Company that the Respondent No. 1 was not holding heavy goods vehicle license is not admissible. In the present case, respondent No. 1 is the driver of the truck that Page 2 of 4 Uploaded by SATISH C. VEMULLA(HC00206) on Sat Jan 04 2025 Downloaded on : Mon Jan 06 21:55:37 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/FA/1494/2015 ORDER DATED: 02/01/2025 undefined caused the accident, respondent No. 2 is the owner of the said truck, whereas respondent No. 3 is the Insurance Company of the said truck. The insurance company has not raised any dispute that the said truck was not insured by the existing Insurance Company on the date of the accident. Therefore, in such circumstances, it is held that all the respondents are jointly and severally liable to pay the compensation amount to the petitioners in this regard."
5. Insurance Company called RTP Officer, Valsad as its witness and produced certificate at Exh.35. Certificate contains particulars of driving license No.GJ-15/006445/05. Name of the driving license holder is Santosh K Chhatoi. Date of issuance is 02.05.1998; for non transport vehicle it is 05.05.2011 and for transport vehicle it is 05.05.2011. It is renewed on 06.05.2008 and driver was permitted to drive HGV from 23.01.2002. Learned advocate Ms.Rahevar for the appellant - Insurance Company argued that there is no evidence on record produced by the claimant to establish that on the date of accident i.e. 02.05.2008, he was entitled to drive HGV.
6. Aforesaid particulars extracted from driving license indicates that claimant was permitted to drive HGV from 23.01.2002. There is no contra evidence on record. Renewal of license also took place. Section 15 of the Motor Vehicles Act is governing provision for renewal of driving license, according to which renewal will take effect from date of expiry.
Page 3 of 4 Uploaded by SATISH C. VEMULLA(HC00206) on Sat Jan 04 2025 Downloaded on : Mon Jan 06 21:55:37 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/FA/1494/2015 ORDER DATED: 02/01/2025 undefined 7. According to this Court, learned Tribunal has not
committed any error in believing that driver was authorized to driver HGV on the date of accident. Licensing authority has authorized him to drive HGV from 23.01.2002 by issuing license and it is even proved from the evidence led by the Insurance Company itself (Exh.35). In view of this, appeal filed by insurance company raising doubt on the finding of learned Tribunal in regard to license of the driver of vehicle is concerned, is baseless and bereft of merit, deserves to be negated.
8. In view of above, the appeal deserves to be dismissed and accordingly, it is dismissed.
8.1 The Tribunal shall disburse the entire awarded amount lying in the FDR and/or with the Tribunal, with accrued interest thereon, if any, to the claimant, by account payee cheque / NEFT / RTGS, after proper verification and after following due procedure.
8.2 While making the payment, the Tribunal shall deduct the courts fees, if not paid, in accordance with rules/law.
8.3 Record and proceedings be sent back to the concerned Tribunal, forthwith.
(J. C. DOSHI,J) SATISH Page 4 of 4 Uploaded by SATISH C. VEMULLA(HC00206) on Sat Jan 04 2025 Downloaded on : Mon Jan 06 21:55:37 IST 2025