F.A.O.NO. 59 OF 1995 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH F.A.O.NO. 59 OF 1995 Date of decision:1st October, 2010 National Insurance Co. Ltd. Patiala through its duly constituted Attorney Shri R.C.Gupta, Admn Officer,Sector 35-B, Chandigarh. .......Appellant Versus Sunil Kumar and others ........Respondents BEFORE: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN Present: Mr. Inderjeet Sharma, Advocate, and Mr. Pardeep Bedi, Advocate, for the appellant. None for the respondents. 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? Yes/No 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not?Yes/No 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Yes/No K.Kannan, J.(Oral) 1. The appeal is by the Insurance Company and the only point for consideration is the liability of an insurer in a case where the driving licence is shown to be fake. In this case, the report of the Licencing Authority has been placed on record to show that the licence had not been issued from the particular licencing Authority. The Tribunal however, relied on the renewal of the licence and held by reliance of Full Bench judgment of this Court in National Insurance Company Limited vs. Suchha Singh (1994)1 PLR 140 that held that if F.A.O.NO. 59 OF 1995 2 the renewal was genuine then even the fake licence could be treated as genuine and law has undergone a change with pronouncement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in United India Insurance v. Davinder Singh(2007) 8 SCC 342 where it was held that even if the renewal is genuine but the original issue of licence is proved to be fake, it would be fake. 2. The award of the Tribunal under circumstances is modified to make the insurer liable only for satisfying the claim of the claimants and recover the same against the insured/owner. The appeal is allowed to the above extent. [K.KANNAN] JUDGE 1st October, 2010 Shivani Kaushik