IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.414 of 1999 (O&M) Date of decision: 17.09.2010 National Insurance Company Limited ....Appellant versus Kamaljit Kaur and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ---- Present: Mr. Neeraj Khanna, 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 is in appeal challenging the liability on the ground that the driver did not have a valid driving licence. The copy of the licence produced in Court showed that it had been originally issued by the Licensing Authority at Gwalior and it had been subsequently renewed at Hoshiarpur. 2. On the application for production of the records from the Licensing Authority at Gwalior, the Tribunal had issued a notice in the form of a letter that the licensing authority was required to appear along with the relevant records for the Licence No.J/1-5575/85 issued in the FAO No.414 of 1999 (O&M) - 2 - name of Jasvinder and had given an option for the addressee to give a verification report on the validity of insurance if he was unable to appear for some unavoidable reasons. The Licensing Authority took a softer open to make an endorsement on the letter, stating that the licence had not been issued by that authority. It is Tribunal's own order that allowed the statement contained in the report as proof and, therefore, the Tribunal would not be justified in ultimately holding that the Insurance Company did not discharge the onus properly by proving through any witness connected with the document that the licence was not genuine. 3. The counsel for the Insurance Company states that he would be prepared to take appropriate steps to have the documents summoned and adduce evidence before the Tribunal if one more opportunity is granted. Having regard to the nature of order that was passed by the Tribunal on 12.09.1998 giving an option to the addressee to give a report instead of personally appearing before the Tribunal, the Insurance Company shall be at liberty to take appropriate steps if the matter is remanded to the Tribunal. 4. The award of the Tribunal is set aside only in so far as there existed an inter se dispute between the insurer and the insured whether the driver's licence referred to the licence number above was genuine or not. The claim as regards the claimants shall stand confirmed and the insurer is bound to satisfy the award if it is not already done. No notice of hearing need be even sent to the claimants and the case shall stand reopened for an adjudication on the validity of the licence of the driver. FAO No.414 of 1999 (O&M) - 3 - 5. The parties shall appear before the Tribunal at Panipat on 29.10.2010. Both parties shall be at liberty to give appropriate evidence on the above date. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 17.09.2010 sanjeev