F.A.O.NO. 2603 of 2001 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH F.A.O.NO. 2603 of 2001 Date of decision:6th July, 2010 New India Assurance Co. Ltd. .......Appellants Versus Smt. Birwat and others ........Respondents BEFORE: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN Present: Mr. Inderjeet Sharma, Advocate for the appellants. Mr. Tapan Kumar, Advocate, for respondent Nos. 1 to 6. 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 against the judgment of the MACT contending that inspite of the fact that the driver who drove the vehicle was proved to have had a fake driving license, the liability was wrongly cast on it. 2. The liability of the Insurance Company in a case of a fake license or a renewal of a license which was a fake one have been considered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in several cases and the decisions in National Insurance Co. v. Swaran Singh (2004) 3 SCC 297 and United Indian Insurance v. Divinder Singh (2007) 8 SCC 342 are instructive. In the latter judgment, it has been held that a renewal of a fake driving F.A.O.NO. 2603 of 2001 2 license is no license at all and hence the insurer shall not be liable. 3. The claim by the Insurance Company that there was no valid Driving License. The Tribunal has dealt with the issue as under:- “Under this issue, respondent Nos. 3 and 6 are to prove that respondent No. 1 was not holding a valid driving license on the date of the alleged accident. To prove this issue, respondent No. 3 has examined one Chaturbhuj a Senior Assistant, RTO Aara as R.W.1. According to him, record of driving licenses of 23-05.1988 is not available. He has further stated that driving license No. R-1644 has not been issued by their office in the year 1988. According to him, on 26.05.1988, driving license No. 3342 was issued.” 4. If insurer could not secure the record of the driving license, the copy of the driving license which had been produced could not have been doubted. The Tribunal therefore, rejected the contention of the insurer and cast the liability on the Insurance Company. I do not find any error in the reasoning of the Tribunal. Therefore, the present appeal is dismissed. [K.KANNAN] JUDGE 6th July, 2010 Shivani Kaushik