IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.2698 of 1996 (O&M) Date of decision:30.09.2010 The New India Assurance Company Limited ....Appellant versus Smt. Balbir Kaur and others ...Respondents II. FAO No.2706 of 1996 (O&M) The New India Assurance Company Limited ....Appellant versus Harinder Kaur and others ...Respondents III. FAO No.2729 of 1996 (O&M) Harinder Kaur and others ....Appellants versus Balwinder Singh 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 in FAO Nos.2698 and 2706 of 1996 and for respondent No.3 in FAO No.2729 of 1996. Mr. S.P. Singh, Advocate, for Mr. Amit Rawal, Advocate, for the appellants in FAO No.2729 of 1996 and for respondents 1 to 4 in FAO No.2706 of 1996. ----- 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 ? ---- FAO No.2698 of 1996 (O&M) - 2 - K.Kannan, J.(Oral) 1. In all the three cases, the grievance of the Insurance Company is that in its attempt to summon the witness from the licensing authority, the witness received summons but did not respond to the same. The insurer, therefore , moved an application for appoint of a Local Commissioner to collect statement from the licensing authority, but the Tribunal dismissed it on the ground that it had no jurisdiction to issue commission. The rules of procedure relating to collection of evidence shall be the same for the Tribunal, as prescribed under Civil Procedure 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 FAO No.2698 of 1996 (O&M) - 3 - 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.” 2. 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 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. 3. 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 FAO No.2698 of 1996 (O&M) - 4 - 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. The appeals are allowed to the above extent. 4. For appearance of parties before the Tribunal at Ludhiana on 10.11.2010. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 30.09.2010 sanjeev