FAO No.888 of 1987 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.888 of 1987 Date of Decision. 09.09.2010 National Insurance Company Limited, Sector 35, Chandigarh through its Assistant Admn. Officer ......Appellant Versus Raj Rani and others ......Respondents Present: Mr. L.M. Suri, Senior Advocate with Mr. Neeraj Khanna, Advocate for the appellant. None for the respondents. 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 appeal is filed by the insurer denying liability on the ground that at the relevant time when the accident took place, the insured's truck was carrying members of marriage party and the owner had committed violation of terms of policy. The claimant was not any passenger in the truck but he was a scooterist, who was hit from behind by the truck. The negligence of the truck driver was obvious and in a claim by the scooterist, the owner and the insurer of the truck were made liable. In my view, it will be irrelevant that the truck was carrying passengers and the immediate proximate cause of the accident was not the fact that there were any passengers in the truck. So long as the claim is not by any FAO No.888 of 1987 -2- passenger, who was taking the benefit of such a violation of terms of policy and the claim emanated from a third party to the truck namely a scooterist then it will not avail to the insurer to contend that there had been a breach of terms of policy and that it will not be liable. This situation is somewhere akin to how the Hon'ble Supreme Court dealt with in National Insurance Company Limited Vs. Swaran Singh (2004) 3 SCC 279 where even the issue of lack of driving licence would be irrelevant if the accident had taken place without reference to the validity of driving licence in a situation like mechanical or act of god. 2. The insurance company shall, therefore, bound to satisfy the claim arising out of the accident involving the death of a scooterist and I, therefore, confirm the award and dismiss the appeal filed by the insurer. (K. KANNAN) JUDGE September 09, 2010 Pankaj*