Allahabad High Court
M/S Keshav Road Lines And Another vs New India Assurance Co. Ltd. And ... on 19 December, 2022
Bench: Dinesh Pathak
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Court No. - 2
Case :- FIRST APPEAL FROM ORDER No. - 993 of 2014
Appellant :- M/S Keshav Road Lines And Another
Respondent :- New India Assurance Co. Ltd. And Another
Counsel for Appellant :- N.D. Shukla,Sanjay Upadhyay
Counsel for Respondent :- Mohan Srivastava,Pankaj Goswami,Prashant Verma,Salilendu Kumar Upadhyay
Hon'ble Dinesh Pathak,J.
Heard learned counsel for the appellants and learned counsel for respondents no. 1 and 2.
Instant first appeal from order has been filed under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act assailing the judgment and award dated 19.02.2014 passed by the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal/Addl. District Judge, Mainpuri in Motor Accident Claim Petition No. 539 of 2010.
Claim petition has been filed on behalf of Kotwal Singh (respondent no. 2) owing to death of his son namely Raghubir Singh who succumbed to electrocution. It is the case of the claimant that the deceased was Cleaner in the offending vehicle owned by the appellants. On the fateful day i.e. intervening night of 24/25.06.2010, the vehicle was parked near the electric wires. At the mid night, the cleaner woke up for urination, he accidentally came in touch with live electric wires which resulted into his demise. Issue no. 1 has been framed with respect to the factum of incident took place on the date of incident i.e. 24/25.06.2010, Issue no. 2 has been framed with respect to insurance of the vehicle with the Insurance Company (Respondent no. 1), Issue no. 3 has been framed for the valid driving license of the driver, Issue no. 4 has been framed with respect to operation of the vehicle under the conditions of the insurance policy and Issue no. 5 has been framed with respect to the relief the appellant/claimant entitled for. Issue nos. 1, 2 and 4 have been decided in affirmative, however, issue no. 3 has been decided in negative and, accordingly, compensation has been determined in favour of the claimant.
On a pointed query being made to the counsel for the Insurance Company with respect to filing of cross appal assailing the award passed by the Tribunal, he has denied filing of any appeal on behalf of the Insurance Company assailing the impugned judgment/award. In this view of the matter, impugned judgement/award has attained finality against the Insurance Company (respondent no. 1). Apart from that, there is nothing on record as well with respect to filing of any cross appeal on behalf of the claimant (respondent no. 2).
Instant appeal has been preferred on behalf of the vehicle owner assailing the judgment and award passed by the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal only with respect to the finding returned by the Tribunal in deciding the Issue no. 3 wherein the driving license of the driver has been found invalid. In deciding the Issue No. 3, it has been observed by the Tribunal that the Insurance Company has filed the verification certificate issued from the Transport Officer, Banka, negating the genuineness of driving license of the driver, with an endorsement that the driving license (Paper No. 19-C/3) submitted by Dashrath Yadav (driver of the vehicle) is not issued from the transport office of Banka, State of Bihar. On the basis of the aforesaid verification certificate (Paper No. 30-C/2), the Tribunal came to the conclusion that the driver had not possessed the valid driving license on the date of incident.
Learned counsel for the appellant has advanced one point submission that the driving license being D.L. No. 1040/99 was issued from the transport office of District Bhagalpur, State of Bihar, however, insurance company has illegally verified the genuineness of driving license from the Transport Office, Banka. In support of his submission, he has drawn the attention of the Court towards the Verification Certificate (Paper No. 33-C/2) which was issued by the transport office, Bhagalpur, State of Bihar certifying the driving license of Dashrath Yadav (Driver). It is next submitted that the Insurance Company has illegally filed the verification certificate issued from the transport office of Banka, State of Bihar which is the residential address of the driver written on the driving license.
Perusal of record reveals that Driving License No. 1040/99 was issued from the District Transport Office, Bhagalpur, State of Bihar, however, the Tribunal influenced with the document (Paper No. 30-C/2) a verification certificate issued from the Transport Office Banka, State of Bihar. Prima facie it appears that district Banka, State of Bihar is the native place of the driver.
I found substance in the submissions advanced by learned counsel for the appellant. Therefore, instant appeal deserves to be allowed on the limited point qua validity of the driving license of the driver namely Dashrath Yadav and issue no. 3 requires fresh consideration by the learned Tribunal.
In this conspectus as above, instant appeal succeeds and is allowed. Matter is remitted before the Tribunal concerned for the limited purpose to decide the Issue no. 3 afresh, after giving opportunity of hearing to the parties concerned, qua genuineness of the driving license no. 1040/99 (Paper No. 19-C/3) issued in favour of Dashrath Yadav (Driver). It is expected that the aforesaid matter shall be decided expeditiously, preferably, within a period of five months from the date of appearance of both the parties who are hereby directed to appear before the Tribunal concerned on 30.01.2023.
Office is directed to take appropriate steps immediately to remit the record of the court below relating to the instant appeal positively within three weeks from today so that record may be available before the Tribunal concerned on or before 30.01.2023.
Amount of award as deposited by the appellant or respondent no. 1 shall be subject to the decision made by the Tribunal, in compliance of the order of the date.
Order Date :- 19.12.2022
VR
