F.A.O.NO. 1571 OF 1995 and 1 F.A.O.No. 1572 of 1995 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH F.A.O.NO. 1571 OF 1995 Date of decision: 16th July, 2010 The New India Insurance Company .......Appellant Versus Smt. Dalbir Kaur and others ........Respondents F.A.O.No. 1572 of 1995 The New India Insurance Company .......Appellant Versus Dalbir Kaur and others ........Respondents BEFORE: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN Present: Mr. Tejinder Pal Singh, Advocate, for the appellants. None for the respondents. 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? Yes/No 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not?Yes/No 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Yes/No K.Kannan, J.(Oral) 1. Both these appeals arise out of the same accident and Insurance Company is in appeals against the judgments of the MACT Amritsar, contending that inspite of the fact that the driver who drove the vehicle did not have a valid driving licence, the liability is wrongly cast on it. 2. In this case, there was evidence on record that the F.A.O.NO. 1571 OF 1995 and 2 F.A.O.No. 1572 of 1995 driver Santokh Singh did not have a valid driving licence and the licence was fake. The Tribunal still adopted a reasoning that an Insurance Company could dispute liability only if it was being driven by a person other than the driver authorized by the owner, meaning thereby, if the owner had authorized a person who did not have a valid driving license the Insurance Company would become liable. Such a reasoning is untenable. Therefore, both the appeals are allowed to the context of providing for satisfying the awards and recovering the same against the insured. [K.KANNAN] JUDGE 16th July, 2010 Shivani Kaushik