IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.1194 of 2008 and FAO No.1195 of 2008 Date of decision:12.08.2010 New India Assurance Company Limited ...Appellant Versus Ram Niwas @ Ram Kishan and others ....Respondents Present: Mr. Aswani Talwar, Advocate, and Mr. Rahul Garg, Advocate, for the appellant. Mr. Neeraj Khanna, Advocate, for respondent No.1 in FAO No.1194 of 2008 and for respondents 1 to 3 in FAO No.1195 of 2008 Mr. Sandeep Thakan, Advocate, for Mr. Jagjeet Beniwal, Advocate, for respondents 2 and 3 in FAO No.1194 of 2008 and for respondents 4 and 5 in FAO No.1195. ----- CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ----- 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 is in appeal challenging liability on the ground that the insurer's vehicle was a goods carriage and the persons making the claim were persons, who were gratuitous passengers. The claimants' contentions themselves were that the deceased and the injured claimants had taken a lift to go to hospital and the accident had taken place while in transit. The Tribunal held that two passengers were FAO No.1194 of 2008 - 2 - gratuitous passengers but made the insurer liable “on humanitarian grounds”. It is strange way of tracking liability of an insurer when what the Tribunal is required to do is to see whether the Insurance Company was legally liable as per the terms of the policy and as per the provisions of law. Humanitarian reasons may exist elsewhere for appreciating evidence or understanding the pain and suffering that the person goes through but a legal liability cannot be cast on that ground. 2. A gratuitous traveller in a goods carriage is not required to be covered by the terms of the policy unless the traveller in the goods carriage is a driver, or a workman or a person travelling along with the goods. There existed no liability to satisfy the claim and the award against the insurer is not tenable in law. 3. The award shall subsist only against the owner of the truck and the awards in so far as they fastened the liability on the insurer are set aside. The appeals are allowed. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 12.08.2010 sanjeev