Case: Ramashray Singh Vs. New India Assurance Co. Ltd.

2. The appellant is the owner of a vehicle, described as a trekker, in which passengers are carried for hire. He employed Shashi Bhushan Singh as a khalasi of the vehicle. On 21.10.1998 the vehicle met with an accident as a result of which Shashi Bhushan Singh died. The legal heirs of the deceased employee filed a claim in the Workmens Compensation Court against the appellant, as the owner of the vehicle, and against the respondent insurance company. The Workmens Compensation Court held that the vehicle had been comprehensively insured with the respondent and that since the accident had occurred during the period of insurance, the insurance company was liable to pay the compensation on account of the death of the employee. The respondent was, therefore, directed to deposit the compensation determined under the provisions of The Workmens Compensation Act, 19233. The decision was challenged by the respondent before the High Court at Patna under Article 226. The High Court allowed the writ petition. It held that in the absence of any special contract between the appellant and the respondent, the rights of the parties were governed by statute which did not require the respondent to cover liability in respect of an accident to a khalasi. The statute in question is the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (referred to hereinafter as the Act)4. The appellant has impugned the decision of the High Court before this Court, primarily on the ground that the High Court had misconstrued the provisions of the Act and in particular clause (b) of subsection (1) of section 147. It was contended that the insurance policy expressly covered the death or injury to the khalasi. Our attention was drawn to the insurance certificate where under the heading Particulars of the vehicle insured there is a column which refers to Seating capacity including driver and cleaner. Under this sub-head the figure 13 + 1 has been inserted. A cleaner, as accepted by both parties before us, would include a khalasi. The appellant submitted that he had paid premium on the basis of 13+1 to cover the liability in question5. The respondent has refuted the claim that any additional premium was paid to cover the risk pertaining to a khalasi. It is contended that in terms of the insurance policy, as also under the provisions of Section 147(1)(b), no employee of the insured apart from the driver was covered6. Chapter XI of the Act covers the subject Insurance of Motor Vehicles Against Third Party Risks under Section 146(1) of which no person shall use a motor vehicle in public unless there is a valid policy of insurance which complies with the requirements of the Chapter. The mandatory requirements of such insurance policy have been provided in Section 1477. The relevant extract of Section 147 is reproduced with emphasis on the words on which the appellants case rests:Section 147: Requirements of policies and limits of liability - (1) In order to comply with the requirements of this Chapter, a policy of insurance must be a policy which -(b) insures the person or clauses of persons specified in the policy to the extent specified in sub-section (2) -(i) against any liability which may be incurred by him in respect of the death of or bodily injury to any person or damage to any property of a third party caused by or arising out of the use of the vehicle in a public place;(ii) against the death of or bodily injury to any passenger of a public services vehicle caused by or arising out of the use of the vehicle in a public place:Provided that a policy shall not be required-(i) to cover liability in respect of the death, arising out of and in the course of his employment, of the employee of a person insured by the policy or in respect of bodily injury sustained by such an employee arising out of and in the course of his employment other than a liability arising under the Workmens Compensation Act, 1923 (8 of 1923), in respect of the death of, or bodily injury to, any such employee -(a) engaged in driving the vehicle, or(b) if it is a public service vehicle, engaged as a conductor of the vehicle or in examining tickets on the vehicle, or(b) if it is a goods carriage, being carried in the vehicles, or(ii) to cover any contractual liability8. Over and above the risks which are covered by this statutory provision, parties may of course enter into a contract by which the insurer agrees to cover additional risks. It is not the appellants case that apart from the policy of insurance there was any contract between the appellant and the insurance company. The policy has a clause which defines the limits of liability in respect of death or bodily injury to any person caused by or arising out of the use of the mother vehicle under Section II(i) of the terms and conditions of the Policy. In proviso (b) to Section II(1), it has been expressly stated thatExcept so far as is necessary to meet the requirements of the Motor Vehicles Act, the Company shall not be liable in respect of death of or bodily injury to any person in the employment of the insured arising out of end in the course of such employment9. A copy of the original policy was produced by respondents in the course of arguments. The appellant has objected to the production of the policy at this stage. We would have understood and upheld the submission had the appellant not based his claim on the policy.

Reasoning: The appellants submission that the phrases any person and any passenger in clauses (i) and (ii) of sub section (b) to Section 147(1) are of wide amplitude, is correct.However , the proviso to the sub-section carves out an exception in respect of one class of persons and passengers, namely, employees of the insured, in other words, if the person or passenger is an employee, then the insurer is required under the statute to cover only certain employees. As stated earlier, this would still allow the insured to enter into an agreement to cover other employees, but under the proviso to Section 147 (1)(b), it is clear that for the purposes of Section 146(1), a policy shall not be required to cover liability in respect of the death arising out of and in the course of any employment of the person insured unless. first: the liability of the insured arises under the Workmens Compensation Act, 1923 and second : if the employee is engaged in driving the vehicle and if it is a public service vehicle, is engaged as conductor of the vehicle or in examining tickets on the vehicle. If the concerned employee is neither a driver nor conductor nor examiner of tickets, the insured cannot claim that the employee would come under the description of any person or passenger. If this were permissible, then there would be no need to make special provisions for employees of the insured. The mere mention of the word cleaner while describing the seating capacity of the vehicle does not mean that the cleaner was therefore a passenger. Besides the claim of the deceased employee was adjudicated upon by the Workmens Compensation Court which could have assumed jurisdiction and passed an order directing compensation only on the basis that the deceased was an employee. This order cannot now be enforced on the basis that the deceased was a passengerIt is doubtful whether a khalasi and a conductor are the same. But assuming this were so, there is nothing to show that the appellant had paid any additional premium to cover the risk of injury to a conductor. On the contrary, the policy shows that premium was paid for 13 passengers and 1 driver. There is no payment of premium for a conductorAn insurance policy only covers the person or classes of persons specified it the policy. A comprehensive policy merely means that the loss sustained by such person/persons will be payable upto the insured amount irrespective of the actual loss suffered15. Consequently, although the appellants claim under the insurance policy arose under the Workmens Compensation Act, since the concerned employee was not engaged in the capacity of driver in respect of whom alone premium was paid apart fro the passengers, his claim is unsustainable