F.A.O.NO. 1897 OF 2000 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH F.A.O.NO. 1897 OF 2000 Date of decision:1st October, 2010 Oriental Insurance Company Limited, through its Manager, Sector-17, Chandigarh .......Appellant Versus Smt. Deepeka Khurana and others ........Respondents BEFORE: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN Present: Mr. Ashwani Talwar, Advocate, for the appellant. Mr. Pankaj Jain, Advocate, for respondent Nos. 1 to 3. 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 challenging the liability on the ground that the driving licence was not genuine. At the trial the driver and the owner appeared through counsel but did not participate in the proceedings. The driving licence was summoned from the Criminal Court and brought to the record of the Tribunal on 7.12.1999. The Insurance Company claimed that it had sent for verification of the driving licence and it secured a report on 24.03.2000 that the driving licence was not genuine and it had not F.A.O.NO. 1897 OF 2000 2 been issued by the Licencing Authority which was referred to as the issuing authority in the copy of the driving licence. By the time the report was secured the Tribunal had already delivered the judgment on 10.03.200. 2. In appeal, the Insurance company has urged that the insurer did not have sufficient opportunity to produce proof of invalidity of the driving licence. In a case where the Licencing Authority was at far off place in Uttar Pardesh, the Tribunal ought to have given to the insurance company sufficient opportunity to protect itself to a ground which is statutorily available under Section 149(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act. The claimant will come to no harm, for the award passed making the insurer liable for the claimants is confirmed. An adjudication will now be only for settling the inter se dispute between the insurer and the insured. 3. The award of the Tribunal in so far as the issue relating to the validity of the driving licence is alone set aside and matter remitted to the Tribunal for an adjudication as per law. The Insurance Company is at liberty to produce the evidence in support of its contention and needless to say that the owner and driver shall also have an opportunity to participate and adduce appropriate evidence. The appeal is allowed to the limited extent as mentioned above and remitted to Tribunal, Gurgaon, for an adjudication in accordance with law. 4. Parties are directed to appear before the Tribunal, F.A.O.NO. 1897 OF 2000 3 Gurgaon on 9.11.2010. 4. In appeal, if there has been a stay of recovery of 50% of the amount, the interim order granted stay stands vacated by this order. 5. The appeal stands disposed of in the above terms. [K.KANNAN] JUDGE 1st October, 2010 Shivani Kaushik