F.A.O.NO. 6121 OF 2010 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH F.A.O.NO. 6121 OF 2010 Date of decision:28th October, 2010 Oriental Insurance Company Ltd., through its Regional Manager, SCO No. 109-111, Sector 17-D, Chandigarh. .......Appellant Versus Tarsem Paul and others ........Respondents BEFORE: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN Present: Mr. Ashwani Talwar, Advocate, for the appellant. 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 Insurance Company is in appeal, aggrieved against a direction for payment of interest in a case where the petition had been filed on 11.12.1998 and an ex parte award passed on 27.02.2003. The ex parte award was set aside on 18.11.2009. The contention of the Insurer is that it knew of the institution of the proceeding only on 18.12.2009, when it had a notice of the application. Award was ultimately passed on 10.08.2010. The contention therefore, is that interest could have been levied against the insurer only from the date when the petition was served on the insurance company. 2. I cannot admit to such a plea for delay whenever they F.A.O.NO. 6121 OF 2010 2 occur due to pendency of proceedings in Court, cannot cause any prejudice to a claimant. Unless the claimant himself had been lax and he had delayed the filing of the petition itself, there ought not to be a justification for denying interest which is statutorily protected and it is intended to offset the effect of inflationary trends. The Insurance Company has already been granted recovery rights against the owner/ insured. In the ultimate bargain, the insurance company has not come to any serious prejudice. The counsel however, states that it is invariably difficult to effect a recovery against the insured. If such a contention were to be true, it cannot still be a matter that could cause a prejudice to the claimant. 3. The appeal by the insurer under circumstances is dismissed and confirming the award already passed by the Tribunal. [K.KANNAN] JUDGE 28th October, 2010 Shivani Kaushik