IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.3237 of 1996 (O&M) Date of decision:30.09.2010 National Insurance Company Limited ....Appellant versus Smt. Sudershan Rani and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ----- Present: Mr. L.M.Suri, Senior Advocate, with Mr. Neeraj Khanna, Advocate, for the appellant. Mr. S.P. Singh, Advocate, for Mr. Amit Rawal, Advocate, for respondents 1, 4, 5 and 6. ----- 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 the liability on the ground that the driving licence was not genuine. It moved an application for appointment of a Local Commissioner to collect the evidence after notice to both the parties, having regard to the fact that securing the attendance of witness in Court would be difficult since the Licensing Authority was at Hyderabad. The Tribunal rejected the plea on the ground that he did not have jurisdiction to pass such an order. 2. The rules of procedure relating to collection of evidence shall be the same for the Tribunal, as prescribed under Civil Procedure FAO No.3237 of 1996 (O&M) - 2 - Code and it is provided expressly under Section 169 under the following terms:- “169. Procedure and powers of Claims Tribunals. (1) In holding any inquiry under section 168, the Claims Tribunal may, subject to any rules that may be made in this behalf, follow such summary procedure as it thinks fit. (2) The Claims Tribunal shall have all the powers of a Civil Court for the purpose of taking evidence on oath and of enforcing the attendance of witnesses and of compelling the discovery and production of documents and material objects and for such other purposes as may be prescribed; and the Claims Tribunal shall be deemed to be a Civil Court for all the purposes of section 195 and Chapter XXVI of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974.) (3) Subject to any rules that may be made in this behalf, the Claims Tribunal may, for the purpose of adjudicating upon any claim for compensation, choose one or more persons possessing special knowledge of any matter relevant to the inquiry to assist it in holding the inquiry.” 3. The Tribunal shall have the power to secure the attendance by coercive process or it chooses not so to do, it has the power to collect evidence in any manner which the law permits. It shall include the power under Order 26 Rule 9 as well. The power of a Tribunal to regulate summary procedure cannot be read in restrictive sense. The law provides certain specified defences for the Insurance Company under Section 149(2) and if the insurer seeks the aid of the Tribunal to let in evidence relating to the alleged invalidity of a driving licence, which is one of the permissible defences, the Tribunal shall perforce endeavour to accommodate such plea on behalf of the insurer, without being FAO No.3237 of 1996 (O&M) - 3 - needlessly fettered by technicalities. The rejection of the request for appointing a Local Commissioner to make a report after examining the witnesses from the licensing authority was definitely not appropriate. 4. All this is not to state that the award of compensation itself is vitiated in any way. The issue of driving licence is essentially a dispute inter se between the insurer and the insured and will have a bearing for recovery rights. I maintain the award for the claimants and set aside the award only in so far as it failed to adjudicate effectively on the validity of the driving licence. The matter shall stand remitted to the Tribunal at Ludhiana for an adjudication relating to the validity of the driving licence and the insurer shall be at liberty to apply to the Tribunal for production of such evidence as it deems appropriate for its defence relating to driving licence. The Tribunal shall take a decision in accordance with law after giving full opportunity to both parties namely the insurer and the insured for participating in the adjudication. 5. The award of the Tribunal in so far as the claimants are concerned, is maintained and the matter is remitted to the Tribunal at Ludhiana, for fresh consideration on the issue of licence only 6. For appearance of parties before the Tribunal at Ludhiana on 10.11.2010. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 30.09.2010 sanjeev