IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.1261 of 2001 Date of decision:29.07.2010 United India Insurance Company Limited ....Appellant versus Dhan Parkash Gupta and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ---- Present: Mr. Inderjeet Shama, Advocate, and Mr. Pradeep Bedi, Advocate, for the appellant. None for the respondents. ---- 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. To be referred to the reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest ? ---- K.Kannan, J. (Oral) 1. The Insurance Company was made liable for the negligent act of driving of the insured vehicle, a truck, with the motorcyclist driving a kinetic Honda vehicle. The Tribunal found the negligence of the driving of the truck driver as having resulted in accident and while addressing the liability of the Insurance Company, had merely observed that the Insurance Company had not proved that it was not a valid licence. All that was necessary was a simple verification of what the licence contained. The driving licence which had been produced from the custody of the criminal court and marked as R-2 was a driving licence of the driver to drive a light motor vehicle. The vehicle that was involved in the accident was a transport vehicle. If the licence produced did not carry a transport vehicle endorsement as required under Section 3 FAO No.1261 of 2001 - 2 - of the Motor Vehicles Act, it ought to have been evident to the Tribunal that the driver was not duly licensed. The proof was available in the document itself without having the driver to admit that he did not have a valid licence to drive the particular category of vehicle that was involved in the accident. The liability of the Insurance Company, under the circumstances, ought to have been restricted only to satisfy the claim of the claimants and provided to it a right of recovery against the insured. 2. The appeal is allowed to the above extent. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 29.07.2010 sanjeev